Air Disaster -Volume 2

by Macarthur Job and Matthew Tesch

Book Overview

This volume examines the way unforeseen hazards of jet-age aviation progressively came to light through costly real-world experience, often with an inevitable toll in tragedy and human lives. Yet for... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1875671196
• ISBN13: 9781875671199
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Australian Aviation
• Length: 188 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 8.3" x 10.9"

Customer Reviews

FINEST AIR DISASTER BOOK I HAVE EVER READ

We have all been asked, at one point or another, what book we would bring to a deserted tropical island if marooned there for life. While I will not go so far as to suggest Air Disaster vol 2 should be that book, I will say it is one of the finest books on the subject I have ever read, and I have read many. Its fourteen chapters include the Japan airlines crash of 1985, the Air Lauda disaster in 91, and the 1978 mid-air collision over San Diego. The book is an excellent one for three reasons. First of all, Job gives the reader superb explanations for how these accidents happened. His writing can be understood by everyone from the aviation expert to the land lubber who has never flown. He shows how each crash resulted from a chain of events, often going back several years, that was never broken. Secondly, the book does not cover only the technical side of these disasters, as many have. The human side of the calamity is included as well. The reader may find himself at the site of these crashes, feeling as if they have just occured. Finally, the illustrations in this volume are first rate, and couldn't be better. Several chapters include photos of the actual doomed aircraft years before the crash. Others show the planes right before impact. All together they tell the aircraft's story by themselves. Tesch's illustrations and diagrams add considerably to the work. I gave volume 1 four stars because many of the accidents included were minor and played little part in disaster history. The same cannot be said for this book. I have not read volumes 3 and 4 yet, but can only hope they are as good as this one.

Indulge a bit of "own trumpet-blowing"...?

It's perhaps not the done thing for the artist to comment on his work, masquerading as a "review", but I'm pleased to note the other reviewers' comments about the effort which Mac Job and I put into this series. Enormous effort by us both was invested in these books ~ on Mac's part to bring the dry bones of the official investigation reports (and other sources) to life in an intelligently readable manner; on mine, to flesh these out with a visual context designed to enrich his text and, almost, tell a 'parallel story'. The many explanatory graphics, maps and diagrams were, in almost all cases, redrawn ~ or re-crafted from scratch ~ to bring a clear and dramatic visual emphasis to the stories. The Erebus chapter (a particular personal passion of mine) was an exhaustive collaborative effort between us, the goal being to draw the divergent background official investigations into an appropriately balanced whole. It was a singular honour to be able to secure the contribution of former Air New Zealand Captain Gordon Vette to write the Foreword to this volume. Captain Vette's own investigations into the disaster contributed in no small part to the ensuing Mahon Royal Commission, and I can highly commend his own published work "Impact Erebus" as well. Matthew Tesch

No Blame

The point of these books is MaCarthurs view that to pin point the cause of a disaster it is counter productive to blame an individual. It takes a number of steps for a disaster to happen. If any of these steps are interrupted the disaster may be averted. He also shows the case for cockpit resource management (CRM) that is, how to use the skills of all to best advantage. CRM is starting to flow into fields such as medicine (So the surgeon pays attention to the nurse telling him his about to cut of the wrong leg).

Not as good as the 1st one; better than the 3rd.

If you really liked the first Air Disaster book, then get this one, because it is fascinating stuff.In my opinion, the most tragic accidents are the ones outlined in chapters 2 to 7 and 9 & 10. For me, the most interesting read was concerning an American Airlines DC10; just after takeoff at Chicago O'Hare airport - the left engine ripped off by itself and separated from the wing, tumbling out of control down the runway. As you can imagine, the subsequent scene as the aircraft careened out of control were horrific.It was eventually found that this incident was caused by Continental's air maintenance crews, who removed the engines and mounts as one piece instead of the way that McDonnell Douglas had specified them to be removed separately, and consequently the engine mounts were damaged. So there you go: human error after all!Yet another unique crash involved a collision between a 727 and a Cessna. How could two planes collide you wonder? Only one way to find out...And also included is the infamous Air New Zealand DC-10 that crashed into Mt Erebus during a scenic flight over Antarctica. This edition includes two photos (one is especially spine-chilling) of planes that are within [split]seconds of crashing. One can only imagine how the crew and passengers felt at that time. This book also made me aware of one very ubiquitous misconception: people think that if you're flying on a 747 at 37,000 feet and all four engines fail, you'll hit the ground like a dart. This simply isn't true. A 747 with no engines takes roughly 23 minutes with a 3-degree glide slope to reach the ground from this altitude! Moreover, it can resume level flight on only one engine! Incredible.If there's something else that this series has taught me, it's that an accident is most likely to occur immediately after takeoff, or sometime within half an hour of takeoff.

An exciting written account of air travel disaster history.

Mr. Job has created an eye popping accounting of the risks we all assume when boarding a modern jet aircraft. The inclusion of photographs and sketched graphics along with crew conversation transcribed from cockpit recorders drew me into the unfolding disaster as if I was one of the doomed passengers. This work does an effective job of describing the technical analysis of the failed components or the human error induced by the flight crew. I recommend this to the interested laymen and professionals involved in this kind of work.