The Drone Incident

THE DRONE INCIDENT is a suspense thriller about two men who, through the years, go through personality shifts in reaction to life’s milestones. Fighter pilot “Iceman” TOM BELTON is coldly indifferent, even when killing hundreds in the first Gulf War, until he enters a period of sensitivity after watching the birth of his son.

A decade later, after he sees leukemia steal his wife's last breath, he reverts to being coldly indifferent—even at the expense of his son’s need for the presence and loving care of a parent.

Almost in parallel (but inversely) eighteen-year old JUAN VASQUEZ is guilt ridden after killing a five-year old in an automobile accident. He grudgingly changes when his brother ultimately persuades him to consider converting to Islam. Vasquez becomes an ostensibly militant Muslim until he goes through a sensitivity phase when he falls deeply in love.

When his wife and brother are slaughtered in a drone attack in Pakistan, the young Aeronautical Engineer changes his name to Abdul Mansur, and again changes his personality, this time to become a diabolical cold-blooded killer. A Mexican preppy has been traumatized into a vengeance besotted Mexican version of Jihadism, vowing to use his skin color and Spanish heritage as camouflage. Years later, he proves himself by becoming a cold-blooded killer.

They clash when Captain Belton discovers the autopilot, not the crew, is controlling his NFL charter flight bound for Washington D.C.
Mansur intercepts Belton’s communications to inform the crew he reprogrammed the plane’s autopilot to crash into and destroy the National Security Agency’s eavesdropping capability.
Facing a programmed crash, rockets from fighter planes, or the inability to avoid a flight path into a violent thunderstorm, Belton is unable to override the autopilot.

Responsibility for the lives of one hundred passengers shocks him into realizing what his life has become since he saw his wife die. His heroic corrective action to save his passengers during the middle of the storm results in copilot NORM ORTIZ becoming critically injured when the plane is tossed about during the turbulence.

Emotionally vulnerable after his successful solution to the crisis, Belton succumbs to the care and affection of his lead flight attendant, Emily Clancy, while waiting for his friend to survive surgery.
The Drone Incident is a fast paced James Cameron, Ridlley Scott tale of the impact of life’s milestones on human frailty