Mayday


Book Description

"This Illustrated Hardback book tells the fascinating story of how commercial airliners were developed and the crashes that changed the face of aviation and made flying the safest form of travel in the modern age."--Back cover.




Air Crash Investigations


Book Description

On May 25, 1979, American Airlines Flight 191, a McDonnell-Douglas DC-10-10 aircraft, on its way from Chicago to Los Angeles, crashed just after take-off near Chicago-O'Hare International Airport, Illinois. During the take off the left engine and pylon assembly and about 3 ft of the leading edge of the left wing separated from the aircraft and fell to the runway. Flight 191 crashed killing two hundred and seventy one persons on board and two persons on the ground. The accident remains the deadliest airliner accident to occur on United States soil.




Aircraft Accident Analysis: Final Reports


Book Description

Fascinating and factual accounts of the world’s most recent and compelling crashes Industry insiders James Walters and Robert Sumwalt, trained aviation accident investigators and commercial airline pilots, offer expert analyses of notable and recent aircraft accidents in this eye-opening, lesson-filled case file. Culled from final reports issued by military and foreign government investigations, as well as additional research and resources, Aircraft Accident Analysis: Final Reports tells the final and full tales of doomed flights that stopped the world cold in their wake. Technical accuracy and details, presented in layman’s language, help to clarify: Major accidents from commercial, military, and general aviation flights Pilot backgrounds and flight histories Chronology of events leading to each accident Description of aviation investigation process Insight into NTSB, military, and foreign government findings Resulting recommendations, requirements, and policy changes Readable, authoritative, and complete, Aircraft Accident Analysis: Final Reports is at once an important reference tool and a riveting, what-went-wrong look at air safety for everyone who flies. Featured final and preview reports include: U.S. Air Force, U.S Commerce Secretary Ron Brown, Dubrovnik, Croatia Jessica Dubroff, Cheyenne, Wyoming Valujet Airlines 592, Everglades, Florida American Airlines 955, Cali, Columbia John Denver, Pacific Grove, California Atlantic Southeast Airlines, Carrollton, Georgia US Air 427, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania TWA 800, Long Island, New York Delta Air Lines, LaGuardia Airport, New York John F. Kennedy, Jr., Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts




Air Crash Investigations: Tenerife Airport Disaster, the World's Deadliest Plane Crash Ever


Book Description

On Sunday, March 27, 1977 KLM Flight 4805 and PANAM Flight 1736 both approached Las Palmas Airport in the Canary Islands, when a terrorist's bomb exploded on the airport. Both flights were diverted to the neighboring island of Tenerife. After Las Palmas Airport reopened first KLM Flight 4805 was cleared for takeoff, a few minutes later PANAM 1736 was cleared. Due to a number of misunderstandings both aircraft collided on the runway of Tenerife Airport during takeoff, killing 583 people.




The Crash Detectives


Book Description

A fascinating exploration of how humans and machines fail - leading to air disasters from Amelia Earhart to MH370 - and how the lessons learned from these accidents have made flying safer. In The Crash Detectives, veteran aviation journalist and air safety investigator Christine Negroni takes the reader inside crash investigations from the early days of the jet age to the present, including the search for answers about what happened to the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. As Negroni dissects each accident, she explores the common themes and, most importantly, what has been learned from them to make planes safer. Indeed, as Negroni shows, virtually every aspect of modern pilot training, airline operation and aircraft design has been shaped by lessons learned from disaster. Along the way, she also details some miraculous saves, when quick-thinking pilots averted catastrophe and kept hundreds of people alive. Tying in aviation science, performance psychology and extensive interviews with pilots, engineers, human factors specialists, crash survivors and others involved in accidents all over the world, The Crash Detectives is an alternately terrifying and inspiring book that might just cure your fear of flying, and will definitely make you a more informed passenger.




Air Crash Investigations: The Crash of Swissair Flight 111


Book Description

On 2 September 1998, Swissair Flight SR 111 departed New York, on a scheduled flight to Geneva, Switzerland, with 215 passengers and 14 crew members on board. About 53 minutes after departure, the flight crew smelled an abnormal odour in the cockpit. They decided to divert to the Halifax International Airport. They were unaware that a fire was spreading above the ceiling in the front area of the aircraft. They would never make it to Halifax, 20 minutes after the first detection of smoke in the cabin the aircraft crashed in the North Atlantic near Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, Canada. There were no survivors, 229 people died in the incident.




AIR CRASH INVESTIGATIONS: LOST...The Crash of American Airlines Flight 965


Book Description

On December 20, 1995, American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757-223, was on a scheduled passenger flight from Miami, Florida, U.S.A., to Cali, Colombia. Close to its final destination the pilots erroneously cleared the approach waypoints from their navigation computer. When the controller asked the pilots to check back in over Tulua, north of Cali, it was no longer programmed into the computer. They were lost and the aircraft crashed into a mountain. Of the 163 people on board, 4 passengers survived miraculously the accident.




Air Crash Investigations


Book Description

On August 12, 1985, a Japan Airlines B-747 aircraft lost, shortly after take-off, part of its tail and crashed in the mountains northwest of Tokyo. Of the 524 persons on board 520 were killed, 4 survived the accident. The accident was caused by a rupture of the aft pressure bulkhead of the aircraft, and the subsequent ruptures of a part of the fuselage tail, vertical fin and hydraulic flight control systems. The rupture happened as the result of an improper repair after an accident with the aircraft in Osaka, in June 1978.




AIR CRASH INVESTIGATIONS: JAMMED RUDDER KILLS 132, The Crash of USAir Flight 427


Book Description

The Boeing 737 has a history of rudder system-related anomalies, including numerous instances of jamming. A number of accidents and incidents were the result of the airplanes' unexpected movement of their rudders. During the course of the four and a half year investigation of the crash of USAir Flight 427 near Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, killing 132 people, the NTSB discovered that the PCU's dual servo valve could jam as well as deflect the rudder in the opposite direction of the pilots' input, due to thermal shock, caused when cold PCUs are injected with hot hydraulic fluid. This finally solved the mystery of sudden jamming of the rudders of this aircraft.




Aircraft Accident Investigation


Book Description

This book covers all aspects of aircraft accident investigation including inflight fires, electrical circuitry, and composite structure failure. The authors explain basic investigation techniques and procedures required by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). There are also chapters on accident analysis, investigation management, and report writing. The appendices include the Code of Ethics and Conduct of the International Society of Air Safety Investigators.