Skyfall: A Fictional Account of the Hyatt Regency Disaster in Kansas City (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798316629763)

This is a fictionalized version of a real event in Kansas City. A new hotel opened after many delays and engineering changes. The soaring lobby featured three suspended walkways connecting the second, third and fourth floors across the atrium. During a dance those walkways collapsed killing many people.

I was curious about the event and began to do research shortly after it happened. At that time it was difficult to find details so I made up many of the incidences. Twenty years after the tragedy the Kansas City Star published pictures and a story that matched many of the things I had imagined.

People have told me the world is not ready to read another tragedy about a building collapse after 9/11. That is probably true, but this event is still studied in schools of engineering because it was easily preventable. Students do the math and see that the structure could not stand the way it was changed impulsively by one of the engineers.

There are lessons to be learned from this event and the story is fascinating in fiction. To me one of the worst tragedies is that nobody went to jail and the survivors were paid off to keep their mouths shut.

The names and places are fictional and any resemblance to people living or dead is purely coincidental.