About a year ago, I noticed, reading the–at the time–latest Jack Ryan Jr., series Tom Clancy Book (written by Mark Greaney), a slight inaccuracy. Mark Greaney had written that Jack Junior had taken a Lufthansa 777 out of Terminal C at Washington Dulles enroute to Brussels, Belgium. Now, most people would think nothing of it. But, it struck me, because the level of detail is pretty substantial in the series of books, and more often than not, they are right.

So, like any technology savvy person–or at least someone with a Twitter account–I took to twitter and tagged the author.

Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised that he responded to me, and pretty quickly no less.

Cut to 2017 – Reading True Faith and Allegiance

The latest book in the Jack Ryan Jr. Series, which started under Tom Clancy’s steady hand, and has been continued by Mark Greaney, was an enjoyable book. I bought it on a splurge as I was headed down to Costa Rica a few weeks ago, and I was very happy with the splurge.

It wasn’t until the Epilogue that something #avgeek related jumped out at me. 

I don’t want to spoil things, so I’ll stick to just the #avgeek related quotes:

Though he normally had trouble sleeping on aircraft, tonight should have been different, because he was flying on Etihad Airlines, in the Residence…..This flight from Dubai to Sydney, Australia, was fourteen hours long…”

He described the Residence pretty well (I skipped typing all that, so you’ll have to take my word), but, made two kind’ve meaningful “oopsies” – First, its Etihad Airways, Second, Etihad flies from Abu Dhabi, not Dubai. 

Now, of course, he could be thinking that it’s easy to travel from Dubai, since Etihad provides a car service for premium cabin passengers, usually Audi’s:

Etihad Audi Car Service to/from Abu Dhabi

The next example….

Cut to the flight, the character in discussion can’t sleep in his bedroom, so he steps outside of his suite:

He was glad to see the little bar was open; the bartender stood there with only one patron leaning against the half-moon-shaped surface in the center of the first-class cabin.”

The Etihad Airways A380 has many things, but it does not have a half-moon-shaped bar, in the center of the First Class Cabin. Rather, First Class is a single aisle.

Further, while there is a “Lobby,” it’s not really a bar persay.

He might be thinking of the bar at the aft end of the Emirates A380, which, is a half-moon-shape.

Emirates A380 Onboard Bar

And the last example…

Here two other characters enter the fold…

Clark looked away from his watch, confident the job was done, and he looked across the width of the darkened [First Class] cabin and saw Ding checking his own watch…. and then both men reclined their seats as far as they could and closed their eyes.” 

This one is pretty close, but I’m not sure how many folks would want to recline this seat:

Etihad First Apartments Seat

When you could be resting in this:

Etihad A380 First Apartments Bed.

Wrapping Up

I realize, this could come off a bit knit-picky, and really, that’s not my intent. Rather, I just find it interesting to read about how others write about some of the aircraft that those of us in the mile and point and #avgeek community take for granted. I do want to be clear though, this is not a critique. In 752 pages, Mark Greaney got significantly more right than slightly off. It just happens to be a small niche that may be harder to research unless you spend a lot of your time researching airline products, seatmaps, flight schedules, and the airline industry. The more I think of it, maybe I could consult for his next book?

Author’s note: All quotes are from Tom Clancy True Faith and Allegiance, by Mark Greaney