Skyjacked

Gr 5 Up–Five friends who attend the prestigious Hartwell Academy in New York decide to take a last-minute camping trip to Idaho before beginning their sophomore year. Cassie, Tim, Emily, and Brandon have been close friends since kindergarten. Their families are wealthy, and they are used to having a private jet at their disposal. Jay, who recently transferred to Hartwell, is just a regular kid who must work to help his mom since his dad passed away. He is trying to have a good time but feels that he doesn’t really fit in. The return flight home is anything but normal. There is a substitute copilot, they notice that the plane is flying west instead of east, and suddenly, Cassie becomes violently ill. Eventually, the kids realize that their plane has been hijacked—but by whom? And why? Cassie trusts the pilot, Tony, but he has locked the cockpit, which is unusual. Michelle Okolo, an intern at the National Air Traffic Investigation Center, ends up right in the middle of this crisis and wants to contribute however she can to the investigation. As the crisis team works to determine what is happening with the rogue plane, the young friends must come up with a plan to overpower the hijacker. But whom should they trust? And, even if they are successful, who will land the plane?