Have You Read? Shattered Dream: A Single-Parent Airline Pilot’s Story

By Capt. Brian Settles (Eastern/ATA, Ret.)

In Shattered Dream, Brian—who I had the pleasure of flying with when he was a B-727 first officer and we were both based in Atlanta, Ga.—chronicles his life immediately after the March 1989 strike at Eastern Airlines. The book recounts how he cared for his two sons, as a single parent, by driving a cab in the Atlanta area 300 miles per day, six days a week for three years—which allowed him to keep his home and his oldest son in college.

Brian takes the reader all around town (literally) into a world that most of us have very little knowledge of, a world in which he faces dangers and life lessons. He also recalls his many fares to Hartsfield–Jackson Atlanta International Airport, dropping off passengers at the Eastern ticket counter (the reader won’t be surprised to learn his thoughts about that).

Brian keeps the reader on edge as to whether he’ll ever get back into the cockpit as he endures the frustrations of trying to start over at other airlines. He ultimately succeeds in making his way back to the flight deck and joins some former Eastern friends at Private Jet as a first officer on the MD-82. Brian and I eventually flew together again at ATA, where he retired as a B-757 captain. —Reviewed by Capt. Jim Holder (Eastern/ATA, Ret.)

This article was originally published in the April 2017 issue of Air Line Pilot.