This journey has inspired a newfound purpose to advocate at the highest levels in government for aviation safety in hopes that no family suffer a similar tragedy.
Rossana D’Antonio – 7 June 2025
The Back Flap
Much as Eric Schollsberg’s Fast Food Nation made people think about the way we eat, this provocative memoir and exposé challenges readers to question why, given its long history of cover-ups and systemic safety gaps, we continue to trust the aviation industry.
About the book
What is the book about?
On a stormy late May morning in 2008, TACA Airlines Flight 390 crashes at one of the most dangerous airports in the world, Honduras’s Toncontin International Airport. Five people die in the crash—among them my brother, pilot Cesare D’Antonio. Suspecting Cesare will be made a scapegoat for the accident, as so often happens to pilots, I decided to leverage my decades of experience as an engineer and set out in search of the truth.
My upcoming book — part memoir, part exposé — 26 Seconds: Grief and Blame in the Aftermath of Losing My Brother in a Plane Crash interweaves my research regarding other parallel accidents with my own story. Six months after the TACA crash, Captain Sully Sullenberger lands his plane on the Hudson River. Although authorities call his landing a miracle, they also blame him for its necessity. One year after the TACA 390 tragedy, Air France 447 falls from the sky. Again, pilot error. Fast forward to 2018 and Boeing 737 MAXs plummet into the ground killing hundreds. Pilot skills are questioned but an investigation finally reveals Boeing’s fall from grace.
As I dig deeper, I expose a culture that is too quick to conclude pilot error and an industry that experiences systemic weaknesses, chooses profits over safety, lies to its customers, and is willing to risk lives to get its planes back up in the sky. Ultimately, I uncover the smoking gun I’ve been looking for—revealing the truth about TACA 390, exposing aviation cover-ups, and challenging us all to question the very systems we’ve been told we can trust with our lives.
This journey has inspired a newfound purpose to advocate at the highest levels in government for aviation safety in hopes that no family suffer a similar tragedy.
When did you start writing the book?
This story was born on May 30, 2008, while vacationing in Spain. After celebrating our 3rd wedding anniversary, my husband and I returned to the hotel and learned of the plane crash that claimed the life of my brother on CNN as breaking news. That night, my travelogue, its cover stamped with vibrantly colored wildflowers and butterflies, its pages filled with glorious memories, was instantly transformed into one of many journals which chronicled the tragedy and its aftermath. It was that night that I started writing the book.
How long did it take you to write it?
Between revisions and edits and more revisions, this has been a 15-year journey.
Where did you get the idea from?
This is a personal story, my story – a labor of love in transforming a personal tragedy into a newfound purpose of advocacy for aviation safety so no other family suffers the same grief.
Were there any parts of the book where you struggled?
The first drafts were essentially a grief memoir. For someone with a keen ability to step outside myself and analyze a situation objectively, distancing myself from a personal crisis, it was these early drafts that I struggled with. Forcing myself to venture through the stages of grief and struggling to find the words to describe these raw emotions was indescribable.
We all know how important it is for writers to read. Are there any particular authors that have influenced how you write and, if so, how have they influenced you?
I think I discovered memoir shortly after Cesare’s death so there were many memoirists that resonated with me. I was enthralled by Joan Didion. But there were others – Cheryl Strayed, Maya Angelou, Toni Morrison, and Mary Karr just to name a few. I’m inspired by what seems like a natural ease to describe their most heartfelt feelings in almost poetic fashion.
Do you have a target reader?
No target reader. My book touches on several themes. But I would hope that anyone who has lost a loved one and is seeking purpose to go on will be attracted to 26 Seconds.
About Writing
Do you have a writing process? If so can you please describe it?
I’m an engineer by training and have always felt comfortable exercising my left brain. Having received no training as a writer, I struggled to think of myself as such. My process, if you can call it that, was to document everything I was experiencing in early journals. The entries were pretty non-sensical documenting people, events, timelines, sights, sounds, and raw emotions. I literally wrote anything that came to mind whether it made sense or had any substance. Random words or thoughts. One of the pages in my early journals is filled line after line with Cesare’s name on it. Nothing else.
With time, I would revisit that raw material and discovered nuggets, gems that had potential. It was like finding pieces of a puzzle and I would string them together to make sentences that now had slightly more meaning. I found myself literally cutting and pasting passages into paragraphs scattering the pages of new narrative across the floor. Standing amongst these disjointed thoughts on sheets of paper strewn about, I’d immerse myself in those words and allow myself to crawl back into the dark recesses of the past conjuring a tale, a tale of epic proportions. Suddenly and without intention, I was creating a story.
After all these years, this still seems to work for me.
Do you outline? If so, do you do so extensively or just chapter headings and a couple of sentences?
No outline but I do try to create a storyline with scenes that fit nicely within a timeline. Chapter headings emerge organically based on those scenes. But the writing process is messy, so sometimes this is more wishful thinking than reality.
Do you edit as you go or wait until you’ve finished?
I find myself getting bogged down in editing as I go. I think this is a result of my chronic perfectionist persona. But I’m trying to overcome this challenge since it does prevent progress when I lose myself in the proverbial rabbit hole.
Did you hire a professional editor?
Yes! I hired an amazing developmental editor, Jodi Fodor, who helped me get across the finish line. Interestingly, Jodi was not familiar with my story so she would often ask clarifying questions. As I embarked on trying to answer her quandaries, I would inadvertently unearth deeper understandings and epiphanies, of some long-hidden memories or feelings that ultimately made my story richer. I’m indebted to Jodi for her partnership.
Do you listen to music while you write? If yes, what gets the fingers tapping?
No. There are already too many distractions to contend with.
About Publishing
Did you submit your work to Agents?
Yes! I was determined to pursue the traditional pathway to book publishing. I sent out more than 60 queries and received a handful of rejections, but I was more surprised to receive no responses whatsoever. This could not be more frustrating. After several months with no progress and feeling demoralized, I decided to explore hybrid publishing with She Writes Press. On the day I was to sign on with SWP, an agent finally wrote back expressing interest. Feeling a ray of hope, I met with the agent but, as expected, the agent could provide me with no guarantees that my memoir would be picked up by a publisher. By then, SWP had guaranteed a publication date and so it was a no-brainer.
Did you get your book cover professionally done or did you do it yourself?
SWP handles the entire creative process including professionally designing the book cover. And I admit the design is more beautiful than I ever could have imagined.
Do you have a marketing plan for the book or are you just winging it?
As an engineer, I’m a planner. Given that this is an industry I know nothing about, I can’t even begin to imagine winging it.
Any advice that you would like to give to other newbies considering becoming Indie authors?
I think we all must go through our own process, but for me, after exploring the traditional pathway towards book publication and getting no traction, I opted to take matters into my own hands and pursue hybrid publishing. At the end of the day, the goal was to get my story out into the world one way or another. Knowing that authors now have options is both liberating and empowering.
About You
Where did you grow up?
Born and raised in Los Angeles. As an early teen, my family moved to El Salvador, my mother’s homeland, where I attended high school.
Where do you live now?
The idyllic Malibu, California.
What would you like readers to know about you?
Despite the tragedy that my family suffered, I live a life of gratitude. After all, I am blessed with love, peace, and Mother Nature.
What are you working on now?
I thought writing the book was the hard part but I was wrong, promoting and marketing 26 Seconds has become a full-time endeavor.
End of Interview:
Get your copy of 26 Seconds from Amazon US.