Air Disaster (Vol. 1) [Paperback]

MacArthur Job (Author), Matthew Tesch (Author)

Book Description

Series: Air Disaster | Publication Date: January 1995

Air Disaster 1 looks at the major aviation disasters of the jet age covering 1952 to 1977, from the early Comet, 707, Caravelle and Trident days through to the era of the widebody long range jetliner.

Each chapter on each accident is a highly involved detective story in itself, one the reader lives through as if you were intimately involved with the outcome.

Air Disaster 1 begins with the incredible story of the Comet mysteries where aeronautical engineers learnt that metal structures and pressurisation were indeed a new art, and follows on to investigate the TriStar which descended into the Everglades at night while its crew fumbled about on the cockpit floor, the early problems with the DC-10's cargo door, and the horrific 747 collision at Tenerife.

Some others may come as a surprise - the fate that awaited the Caravelle whose crew used its engines to clear fog from the runway for takeoff, and the DC-9 caught in the wake turbulence of a DC-10.

Each of the 18 accidents has been carefully selected to present a different facet of the problems facing the jet age, together with the answers that were found to them - different, rarely straightforward and uncovered only as a result of lengthy, dedicated, and painstaking investigation.

Of 186 pages, Air Disaster Vol 1 makes compelling reading and is backed up with the excellent descriptive artwork, diagrams and maps of Matthew Tesch.

Editorial Reviews

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Fatefully, PanAm's protesting transmission conflicted with the controller's instruction to KLM. Instead of the words "standby for takeoff ... I will call you," all the KLM crew heard after the controller's first "OK" was a squeal resulting from the two simultaneous transmissions on the same frequency.

The exchange that followed between the Tower and the PanAm 747 was however audible on the KLM flightdeck. But by this time the KLM 747 was 20 seconds into its takeoff run. With Captain van Zanten and First Officer Meurs both concentrating fully on the takeoff itself, only Flight Engineer Schreuder took in the possible significance of the two transmissions. "Did he not clear the runway then?" he asked the pilots.

The captain, giving all his attention to the takeoff, did not take in the engineer's question either.

"What did you say?" he asked over his shoulder.

"Did he not clear the runway - that Pan American?" Schreuder repeated.

"Yes, he did," both pilots answered emphatically.

The KLM takeoff continued.

At this stage, the PanAm Boeing, its crew having missed the intersection for Taxiway 3 which the Tower had directed them to take, and unaware of what the other 747 was doing, was still on the runway, approaching Taxiway 4.

Captain Grubbs, still uneasy about occupying the runway in such poor visibility with the KLM aircraft's takeoff obviously imminent, was keen to be out of its way as soon as possible.

"Let's get the hell right out of here," he remarked to his crew:

"Yeah ... he's anxious, isn't he?" Bragg agreed.

"After he's held us up for all this time," enjoined Warns, "Now he's in a rush."

A few seconds later, the PanAm crew caught sight of lights that were materialising through the fog directly ahead. Hazy at first, they seemed for a long moment to be stationary. But as they continued to brighten, it quickly became obvious they were approaching fast!

Grubbs stared through the windscreen in stunned disbelief. "There he is ... look at him!" he cried out. "Goddamn ... that son-of-a-bitch is coming!" Desperately pushing all four throttles wide open, he attempted to swing the Boeing 747 off the runway to the left.

"Get off! Get off! Get off!" Bragg yelled frantically as he saw the other aircraft's nose begin to rise into the takeoff attitude.

Aboard the hurtling Dutch aircraft, First Officer Meurs' eyes were fixed on his steadily rising airspeed indicator. "V1!" he finally called.

At the same moment, van Zanten sighted the PanAm 747 slewing, across the runway ahead of them. Instinctively - there was no hope of stopping - he hauled back on the control column to try and lift over the American. But too suddenly - the tail bumper struck the runway, emitting a shower of metallic sparks.

But lift the KLM aircraft did - just before reaching the other - only it was too late. Its nose leg cleared the PanAm fuselage, but at 140 knots the main undercarriage slammed into it, slicing off the fuselage top as the No 4 engine demolished the hump just behind the flightdeck, and both aircraft exploded into flames.

Product Details

• Paperback: 184 pages
• Publisher: Aerospace Publications (January 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1875671110
• ISBN-13: 978-1875671113
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,246,818 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WELL worth the money!, June 1, 2002

By 

Dr. Leslie Brown "Doc Brown" (Tenerife, Spain, Canary Islands.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Air Disaster (Vol. 1) (Paperback)

I've read all three Air Disaster books, and in my opinion, this is the best one. With all of these books, the authors only include crashes that were caused by true accidents or "mistakes" made by people in the air industry; they do not include disasters based on terrorism or deliberate sabotage attempts.

In my opinion, the most tragic accidents are the ones outlined in chapters 3, 8, 9, 12, 15, 17 and 18. In chapter 8, you witness how a DC9 ran out of fuel and was forced to ditch into the sea - despite having the required fuel to the destination, enough fuel to get to the alternate airport, as well as 30 minutes holding fuel, plus an extra 10%. Extraordinary!

Chapter 12 tells of a flight crew that were so preoccupied with one of the three landing lights not lighting up (for the undercarriage) that none of them noticed that they had bumped the control-column and inadvertantly disengaged the autopilot. The plane crashed, killing over half on board, although afterwards it was discovered that the fimalment of the offending light bulb had simply burnt out and the landing gear was indeed in the down and locked position.

One of the most Catastrophic disasters, was when everyone aboard the Turkish Airline 767 lost their life because a cargo door fell off. In a rare description of the aftermath, another pilot reported on the scene, "There were fragments of bodies and pieces of flesh everywhere that were hardly recognisable. Not far from where I stood were two hands clasping each other, a man's hand tightly holding a woman's hand, two hands that withstood disintegration..."

Finally, the last chapter tells the horrific yet mesmerising story behind the events of the worlds biggest Air Disaster at Tenerife in 1977 involving two 747's (PanAm. and KLM). Ironically, this occurred while both aircraft were still on the ground. I won't go into the details, because it is just waaay to complex (ultimately it was caused by perhaps ten or so "incidents" - and if the outcome had have been different for any one of them, the whole thing would have been averted). Let's just say that the series of events that lead to the tragedy is just astonishing. In reality, it is always a string of highly improbable events that leads to a catastrophe of this magnitude. Ultimately, the death toll rose to 583 - to this day it remains the worst accidental disaster involving one or more aircraft.

Unlikely as it may seem, this book has made me realise how safe air travel is - what I mean is that now I can at least understand how the accidents happened, and therefore how unlikely they are to occur.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent look at some major accidents, June 22, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Air Disaster (Vol. 1) (Paperback)

I found this book very easy to read. Each accident was covered with great detail. The use of drawings to show the accident as it occured left little to the imagination. The written accounts were very accurate. I compared one accident covered in the book with the actual NTSB report and found them to be almost identical. The only difference is this book is easier to read than the NTSB report. If you are interested in aviation accidents, this book (and volume 2) is for you. It's about as close as you want to come to being in an Air Disaster!!!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing wealth of detail, July 23, 2002

By 

History Buff "owen11" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Air Disaster (Vol. 1) (Paperback)

The entire series is a fairly easy read, and introduces the inexperienced to some of the identified causes of well-known - or in the case of this volume, some not-so-well-known - accidents.

These books give a wonderfully even-handed, unbiased review of accidents, using all the evidence available. The stories are then woven with narrative, with actual dialogue where available, that really brings to life how things go wrong and how professional most airline staff are.

If you find what the NTSB does fascinating, are interested in aerospace, mechanical or structural engineering, these books are required reading. But they're also great for the rest of us, who just want to know more about what goes wrong sometimes.