A flight leaves London for Nairobi carrying a mixed group of passengers--a movie star, an American journalist, a businessman, a thief, a young civil servant, a colored woman. Thanks to the overconfident captain and the inefficient navigator, the plane has to crash land in the Sahara where, again thanks to the navigator, it takes five days for a rescue plane to find them. Five die and the rest reveal their true colors under the stress of hardships. Using a subject that is no longer novel, this books falls far short of The High And The Mighty which depicted a similar situation with more suspense, excitement and dramatic pace. A British import, this presents the American as a slangy yokel, a characterization more usual fifty years ago than today--and one not likely to appeal to the reading public here.