Customer Reviews

Aviation Disasters: The World's Major Civil Airliner Crashes Since 1950

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

By far, the best book I've come across covering a wide range of airline mishaps. Many notable and obscure crashes over the last five decades are covered, with special attention paid to some of the more mysterious ones. I was especially pleased at the attention given the mysterious mid-air explosion of the TWA 747 shortly after takeoff from JFK and the USAir 737 that had an uncontrolled rudder deflection. Both crashes were covered in good detail.
I was a bit disappointed, however, with the omission of 2 crashes that I wanted to know more about, namely the 737 at KLAX that was given clearance to land on a runway already occupied by a Fairchild Metroliner, and the PSA Bae146 that was suicide-crashed near So. California.
All in all, though, a good book for those interested in such things.

As a student of aviation safety and accident investigation, this book is the ULTIMATE resource. I have used it several times while taking my aircraft accident studies as a reference material for the cause and interesting details for specific crashes. I have also used it to anwser many a question regarding airline disasters. Of all my aviation books, I find I use this one at least once a week to find information.

AVIATION DISASTERS is for anyone who ever wondered "Why?" and is fascinated with the story details and all the factors leading up to the cause of the event.

An exhaustive and thought provoking read - very hard to put down. Air travel is still, and by far, the safest mode of transportation available, and I would still take it over risking my life at the hands of...drivers on our freeways any day. However, in those rare instances when things do go seriously wrong in flight, the results are usually horrific. Pilot error, communications failure, mechanical breakdown, catastrophic structural failure - its all here. Gero provides detailed technical explanations of what went wrong, and the "lessons learned" from each crash that led to improvements in subsequent air travel that have made it safer for all of us. Highly recommended.

This book is absolutely fabulous. It covers in excellent detail every major air crash from 1950-1999. Some get small descriptions, but the most notable (Pan AM and KLM 747's on the runway at Tenerife, USAir 737 in Pittsburgh, TWA 800, Air Florida 090 (14th St Bridge in Washington), Korean Air 007 (Shot down by the Soviets) and more get very detailed descriptions. Addidtionally the author simply spells out the facts. He doesn't editorialize like other disaster books do. It's a fascinating historical read.

This book had brief synopses of most of the world's air disasters since 1950. I liked how it covered some disasters that were notable but not widely covered or long forgotten (e.g. Soviet Bloc air crashes), but I thought it should have gone into more detail about many of the disasters, and the factors that cause them. Some notable disasters (i.e. the British Comets breaking up in 1954) were inexplicably omitted.

This book is excellent for a brief summary of every major accident since the 50's. It reads like an encyclopedia rather than a novel. Some pictures are included. There is a fair amount of lingo specific to the industry, with occaisonal transciptions of cockpit dialogue and illustrations of flight paths. Emphasis is given to the facts surrounding and explanations for the crashes.

According to Sutton, the fourth edition of this excellent reference has now been released. My review of the third edition:

The book includes only airline disasters which involved more than 50 fatalities. This is a shortcoming because many substantial lessons have been learned in accidents involving fewer fatalities. For example, only one of the two fatal Lockheed L-188 Electra crashes that were attributed to the "whirl-mode" phenomenon (see also: Robert Serling, "The Electra Story") made it into the book. Both of the early Comet disasters which were caused by fuselage skin fatigue and resulting explosive cabin decompression are omitted. Also, the Northwest B-720B which suffered a jet upset and resulting structural failure in an area of thunderstorm activity west of Miami, Florida in 1963 is also omitted. However, the book is well-worth its purchase price and it includes a summary of each accident, along with the probable cause, a list of publications consulted, a brief glossary, and a good index in which the entries are by aircraft type.

Briefly explains the apparent why and wherefore of mant well known and many not so well known aviation disasters. Some people may find the omision of the Comet disasters strange, but reading the preface would explain it all. (Accidents involving loss of 50 or more lives). What is noticeable is how the causes vary over the years. Piston engines breaking up due to continued overwork, stuffed clouds, crew indicipline and "why was the plane where it was and not where the crew thought it was"

This hefty book is an encyclopedia of major civil airliner crashes. (The same author has produced a book on military aviation disasters.) Now, as might be expected with any single book that covers "major" crashes, the author did have do some cherry-picking when it came to which crashes would be included, and which ones would not. I, for example, am disappointed that the crash of United Airlines Flight 553 is not included.

But, that said, I did find that the big and most interesting crashes were in fact included. Indeed, the author did an excellent job of describing the crashes and their aftermaths, in a no-nonsense and factual way. If you are interesting in airliner crashes, then you really should get this book. I highly recommend it.

David Gero has covered many of the 1000's of Air Incdents in this book.

I would have liked to have seen more photos or Drawings relating to individual incidents.

The more recents incidents where much information is available today, I thought, were somewhat vague, felt they could have been elaborated on.
However an excellent reference text. Recommend for an collection.