Can certainly see how Hailey might have slotted right into the technothriller author mold had he started a decade or so later.
Have only seen the film adaptation of Airport but as much as I thought much of the detail just came with how much of a puff piece it was for air travel realize it comes just as much from that love of detail in a complex thing.
Is rage conveyer belt of passenger pods in the book or from something else?