Product Description

Compelling and dramatic insights into crucial moments inside the cockpit. Discover the most sensational air disasters of recent years. Transcripts of actual black box recordings of conversations between captains, their crew, and air traffic control on the ground reveal the final moments during which life-and-death decisions were made. In some cases, disaster is averted; in others, the results are fatal. Every one of these real-life stories contains heroism and terror, and shows the sheer professionalism of those involved when under extreme pressure. They enable the reader to get right inside the cockpit and relive what happened, minute-by-minute, second-by-second. / Includes Air France Flight 4590, the famous Concorde disaster in July 2000

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #66822 in Books
• Published on: 2008-08-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 304 pages

About the Author
Malcolm MacPherson is an American author who has published various works of non-fiction, as well as novels. He is also prolific as a magazine and newspaper journalist, having been published in, amongst others, 'Newsweek', 'New York' magazine and the 'International Herald Tribune'.

Customer Reviews

Chilling
It's hard to know what to say about this. In many ways I still wonder why I bought it - being able to read exactly what happened just before a plane crashes isn't something you want generally wish for, and yet I couldn't leave the shop without it.

The CVR transcripts are usually upsetting and sometimes shocking - while there are examples of hijackers and major, long-winded faults, it's the shorter ones which prove most disturbing. Everything seems to be fine, then suddenly there's a cry of "Oh ****!" and the recording ends. Thankfully the incidents are very well-explained and there is generally enough background, although I couldn't give this five stars as a couple of the incidents could have done with a bit more write-up.

Interestingly, I feel BETTER about flying having read this book. The introduction proves that air travel is far and away the safest way from A to B, and it is very reassuring to see the number of checks the crew have to carry out before take-off. Admittedly there are some really stupid 'human error/foolishness' stories here, but not enough to outweight the clear picture of an industry which understands its responsibilities.

This isn't a light read, containing not only the disasters themselves but a lot of aviation jargon( I felt pretty glad to have logged some hours on Flight Simulator in the past, as it meant I could understand some of the technical aspects). The ethics of reading this kind of thing are probably questionable as well, but I am covertly quite glad that I did. 'Enjoyable' is completely the wrong word: it will powerfully affect you in a way that no other book could ever manage.

Cautiously recommended.

Air Disasters
I have many air disaster books. I already owned Black Box and thought this would be a good addition. It does make interesting reading for those interested in flight deck voice recording transcripts. However, I am often left wondering what words mean and why the aeroplane crashed. I would have liked the author to have expanded on this for most chapters. It is mentioned in some cases but still leaves you wondering...

Having said that, I read the book from cover to cover in a little time at all as it is interesting reading.