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This is flight four six.... And now a jolt took him like a hammer blow, so forcefully that he seemed to crush back into the seat, Brian reached for him, could not understand at first what it was, could not know. And then he knew.

Brian knew. The pilot's mouth went rigid, He swore and jerked a short series of slams into the seat, holding his shoulder. He swore and hissed, " Chest! Oh god, my chest is coming apart! Brian knew now. The pilot was having a heart attack. Brian had been in the shopping mall with his mother when a man in front of Paisleys store had suffered a heart attack. He had gone down and screamed about his chest. An old man. Much older than the pilot.

Brian knew. The pilot was have a heart attack and even as the knowledge came to Brian he saw the pilot slam into his seat and one more time, one more awful time he slammed back into his seat and his right leg jerked pulling the plane to the side in a sudden twist, and his head fell forward and spit came. Spit came from the corners of his mouth and his legs contracted up, up into his seat, and his eyes rolled back in his head until there was only white.

The writer has shown how the pilot is in so much pain and how the heart attack has affected his flying. He builds up the pilots death by showing us how the pilot keeps slamming back and fourth into his seat and when his eyes roll up so they are white. The heart attack also affects the trip because when the pilot dies Brian has to fly the plane by himself and he doesn't know how, so that builds up to the plane crashing.