Sumith Prasad
Apple TV+’s drama series ‘Dear Edward’ follows the life of Edward Adler, the sole survivor of the Trinity Airways Flight 1483 crash. Edward’s parents Jane and Bruce, along with his brother Jordan, die due to the crash, leading him to his aunt Lacey and her husband John. The series progresses through the aftermath of Edward’s survival while also depicting the impact of the deaths of several other passengers on their family members. Since Trinity 1483 and the tragedy that happens to the flight severely changes the lives of many, we were intrigued to discover whether the plane was real. Well, here’s what we found out!
Trinity Airways Flight 1483 is Based on a Real Crash
Trinity Airways Flight 1483 was not a real plane that crashed. The fictional flight was conceived by Ann Napolitano for her eponymous novel, which serves as the source text of the series. Having said that, the author was inspired by a real crash to write her novel. “Dear Edward started when I became obsessed with a real plane crash in 2010. A commercial flight from South Africa to London – filled with mostly Dutch passengers on their way home from vacation – crashed in Libya, and everyone on the flight died except for one nine-year-old boy named Ruben van Assouw,” Napolitano revealed to Penguin Books.
The plane that caught the attention and affected Napolitano is Afriqiyah Airways Flight 771. Its journey started from OR Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg, South Africa, scheduled to land at Tripoli International Airport, located in Tripoli, the capital city of Libya. On May 12, 2010, the flight crashed on approach to a runway at the Tripoli airport, reportedly due to spatial disorientation, pilot error, and lack of crew resource management. 103 passengers and crew members out of the 104 on board were killed and Ruben van Assouw ended up becoming the sole survivor of the crash. Although Trinity 1483 is not a counterpart of Afriqiyah 771, the tragedy that occurred to the latter played a part in the creation of the former.
Ruben’s survival of the crash is identical to the way Edward survives the Trinity 1483 crash in ‘Dear Edward.’ “Ruben was found still strapped in his airplane seat about a half mile away from the wreckage. Investigators speculated that he’d been sitting near the fuselage and had been basically ejected from the plane,” Napolitano added. In the series, Edward is also found away from the wreckage, secured by his seat. The author conceived Edward’s life to “to create a set of circumstances under which a little boy in that situation could believably become a whole person, in spite of—or even because of—what he’d lost,” as per the author’s Library Journal interview.
Napolitano also looked into what happened to Air France Flight 447, a flight that crashed in the Atlantic Ocean while traveling from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, to Paris, France, in June 2009, to conceive Trinity 1483. “There was also an article in the magazine Popular Mechanics about the crash of Air France flight 447 by Jeff Wise, that was instrumental in my understanding of what happened in the cockpit on my fictional flight,” Napolitano added in the Penguin Books interview. The crash caused the death of all 228 passengers and crew members on board.
In addition, Napolitano was intrigued by ‘Sole Survivor,’ a documentary that revolves around a group of sole survivors of plane crashes, while she had been finishing the writing process of her novel. Thus, Trinity 1483 is a fictional plane the author conceived after extensive research into the crashes of Afriqiyah 771, Air France 447, etc.
Read More: Where is Dear Edward Filmed?
