Overview
Irving Platt is the viewpoint character of “Dark Peak.” He is a flight sergeant piloting Sea Witch, a postwar decommissioning aircraft, while carrying memories of Captain Wallis and his wartime crew.
Role
Platt begins the flight irritated by the routine nature of the mission and by Martin Mercure’s casual behavior in the cockpit. He resents Mercure’s drinking, but drinks from his own bottle and responds bitterly when the American needles him about the war and his dead friends.
As the storm worsens, Platt recognizes that the aircraft is over Dark Peak despite the reported flight plan. The wireless fails, lightning strikes the aircraft, and the controls break apart in his hands. After the crash, Platt wakes on a fog-covered moor and encounters Peggy Mercure, Brendan Childs, Martin Mercure, and apparitions of the dead.
Platt watches Mercure reunite with Peggy and Childs reunite with his family. When Captain Wallis appears, Platt receives the recognition he has been carrying in memory and accepts Wallis’s invitation to join the others on the other side.