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Title: The Black Box: All-New Cockpit Voice Recorder Accounts of In-Flight Accidents by Malcolm MacPherson ISBN: 0-688-15892-7 Publisher: Quill Pub. Date: 01 August, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.88 (24 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: I couldn't sleep after reading this one
Comment: This book contains excerpts of actual recordings taken from the "black boxes" of airplanes which crashed. Black boxes are those voice recorders which monitor the voices of airplane pilots and often contain details which explain how and why a plane crashed. Author Malcolm McPherson has brought to life the last moments of passengers and crew during the worst kinds of emergencies imaginable and I doubt you'll be able to put this one down. In many cases, the recordings have never been shared in their entirety before so this book is a rare chance to get details you might not read about otherwise.
Some of the incidents are famious (such as the 1996 ValuJet crashin the Everglades) and others are less well-known. McPherson does have a few errors in this book, mostly in explaining the terminology of aviation but his basic information is accurate and only the most diehard aviation buffs will mind the errors.
Rating: 5
Summary: Gripping and chilling
Comment: It's simply amazing to read what happens in the cockpit when things go wrong. If you like to watch "Wings" on Discovery, you'll enjoy this book. In fact, many of the accidents in the book have been the subject of such series as "Crisis in the Sky" (the Sioux City incident, most notably). To read the unabridged transcripts is an educational (and emotional) treat.
It's almost cliche to say so, but the reactions of the pilots encompass the range of human emotion--from panicked to noble to unbelievably calm. The accidents themselves run the gamut from abrupt and unexpected to shockingly inevitable. While all are disturbing to some degree, the transcript from the Soviet shootdown of Korean Airlines flight 007 is particularly wrenching, and never fails to elicit a tear. "The Black Box" is, in a word, fascinating.
Rating: 1
Summary: Bland and disappointing.
Comment: Full disclosure: This reviewer is prejudiced! He hates air travel in general. In particular he dislikes airports, airlines, airplanes, flight personnel, the so called "food" and virtually anything and everything connected with air travel. For good measure, I just had a very unpleasant encounter with a rude flight attendant from a certain airline based in Minneapolis. I was all set for an expose ripping the industry for unsafe practices, sloppy maintenance, money grubbing from Washington and a host of other sins real and imagined. What I received instead was a disappointingly bland report of cockpit recordings from troubled airliners in flight. Many of these flights crashed with great loss of life, others somehow survived their ordeals. In virtually all of the 28 incidents, I was unmoved. Even the transcripts of the Valuejet crash into the Everglades and the Challenger Space tragedy left me unimpressed. (Other reviewers have hinted that some of the latter was "reconstructed"). The one exception was the final episode concerning the heroic efforts of the crew of United 232, which crashed in Sioux City, Iowa with many survivors. As well as being unmoved by the second hand reporting of these events, I agree with the reviewer from Dublin who felt somehow "soiled" by these proceedings. BB reminded me of old movies of cars going off a cliff. Finally, I have to disagree with the author's statement on page X in the introduction: "The airline industry is constantly striving to make air travel safer" This reviewer believes in the precise opposite. The industry, aided and abetted by a cowed FAA, is cutting every maintenance corner it can to save $$. I believe there is a dark side to this business that goes unreported both on the pages of BB-and elsewhere. BB is nonetheless recommended for pilots, airplane buffs and similar folk. "Ordinary" people looking for an exciting saga will doubtless be disappointed.
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Title: Air Disaster (Vol. 1) by Macarthur Job, Matthew Tesch ISBN: 1875671110 Publisher: Aerospace Publications Pub. Date: 01 January, 1995 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Air Disaster (Vol. 3) by Macarthur Job, Matthew Tesch ISBN: 187567134X Publisher: Australian Aviation Pub. Date: 01 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: On a Wing and a Prayer: Interviews With Airline Crash Survivors by Malcolm Macpherson ISBN: 0060959789 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 22 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Aircraft Accident Analysis: Final Reports by James M. Walters, Robert L.,III Sumwalt ISBN: 0071351493 Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional Publishing Pub. Date: 26 January, 2000 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
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Title: Fatal Words: Communication Clashes and Aircraft Crashes by Steven Cushing ISBN: 0226132013 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: 01 March, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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