The Reading Warehouse

Ta'aroa's Light is based on the true story of UTA Flight 589 that occurred in 1985. It is appropriate for any age child.

In the early morning darkness, a UTA French Airlines DC 10 pilot, in route from Los Angeles to Tahiti, was informed just after the halfway point in the flight over the Pacific, that an onboard bomb was timed to explode before the flight could land at its destination in Tahiti.

The story is told from the point of view of a ten-year-old girl named Jillian who is flying with her family. Since she has trouble sleeping on airplanes, she witnesses the event unfold while her family sleeps. The heroic pilot remembers a runway built on the French Polynesian atoll of Rangiroa, the second largest coral atoll in the world, located 190 miles from Tahiti in the Tuamotu archipelago of French Polynesia. The runway is perfect except for a few minor details: there is no control tower, no electricity, and, therefore, no runway landing lights.

This is an inspirational story based on the heroism of a pilot and the altruism of a small French Polynesian village, resulting in a child overcoming her fear.