Although Fabien's disappearance is the focus of the brief story, Night Flight, Riviere occupies the central role.

Modeled on Saint-Exupery's own Operational Director, Didier Daurat, to whom the story is dedicated, Riviere reveals the author's admiration and respect for his director. Riviere is a complex character, severe, but not inhuman. When he demotes Riblet, a mechanic of twenty years, he feels pity for the decision he must nevertheless make. When faced with Fabien's wife, he disguises the grief he feels, and the night flights continue. His interior monologues carry the philosophical portion of the story, as he searches for the reason for the dangerous operation he directs. Yet like a vigilant parent, he keeps watch all night for his pilots on duty. Andre Gide, who wrote a preface to the book, admired Riviere, and "the paradoxical truth . . . that man's happiness lies not in freedom, but in the acceptance...