Blind Trust [Hardcover]

John J. Nance (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In graphic detail, this book demonstrates the havoc that has been wrought in the airline business in this country by the deregulation bill of 1978. Lower fares mean less income, and less income results in cost-cutting. The major carriers have pared expenses by eliminating flights to smaller cities, spurring the growth of many regional and commuter lines. Such lines, often economically marginal, shave their costs by hiring relatively inexperienced pilots, using inadequate or antiquated planes, and skimping on equipment maintenanceall of which sacrifices passenger safety. While Nance, a lawyer and pilot, does not urge a return to the pre-1978 days, he recommends that the Federal Aviation Administration, as the industry watchdog, be given increased powers to control airline safety. Presenting even relatively technical information in terms of the people involved, Nance makes his case convincingly. 35,000 first printing; $30,000 ad/promo; author tour. Foreign rights: Morrow. January 28
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The deregulation of the airlines in 1978 has produced a serious erosion of the margin of safety for passengers, argues author Nance, a former pilot for Braniff Airlines and currently a lawyer. He claims that lack of managerial and agency supervision in training and maintenance too often produces tragic accidents. Nance's harrowing and tense re-creations of many of these accidents are quite effective; however, he interweaves a welter of claims, statements, and facts in such disorder and profusion that his very significant indictmentthat after 1978 the airlines "reverted from an industry under partial surveillance to an industry running on the honor systmem," and that honor often was not enoughremains effectively out of reach. There is a remarkable mass of information here, all of worth to aviation interests (even a matter of life and death, one could argue), but general readers and those impatient to get to the point will be frustrated. Mel D. Lane, Sacramento, Cal.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow & Co; 1st edition (January 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688053602
• ISBN-13: 978-0688053604
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,238,076 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John J. Nance, aviation analyst for ABC News and a familiar face on Good Morning America, is the author of several bestselling novels including Fire Flight, Skyhook, Turbulence, and Orbit. Two of his novels, Pandora's Clock and Medusa's Child, have been made into highly successful television miniseries. A lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Air Force Reserve, Nance is a decorated pilot veteran of Vietnam and Operations Desert Storm/Desert Shield. He lives in Washington State.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read!, July 26, 2011

By 

m@Rty b - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Blind Trust (Paperback)

If you're interested in the science of human factors, this is an invaluable read. John Nance writes a true page-turner, filled with vivid accounts of tragedy in the air and on the ground.

5.0 out of 5 stars Like a Deja Vue, December 29, 2010

By 

JH "Joe" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Blind Trust (Paperback)

This great book shows clearly what happens when greedy managers put money at the top of the list in Airline Business. This became possible because of deregulating the market without thinking of the consequences. Nothing was really prepared at that time, the FAA had no real understanding of what is required once "making money" becomes the main objective in Airline Business. Deregulation in a safety sensitive area always must be accompanied by strict rules and supervision otherwise safety will be "sold out" to maximise profit. The examples show impressively how this happend in the US in the 70/80s. If you take a look at Europe nowadays you can see that history repeats itself. Safety degradation clearly happens and was just overcompensated by the positive development due to better technology and due to the fact that human factor research was increasingly accepted as the most important way to increase safety.

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A Polemical ax-grinding book that is dead wrong, October 17, 2009

By 

Robert J. Boser "Editor at AirlineSafety.Com" (California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

"BLIND TRUST: How Deregulation Has Jeopardized Airline Safety and What You Can Do About it."

That is the complete title, which should tip off the reader that this book is an ax-grinding, political agenda piece, which is filled with polemic distortions of airline safety history.

In "Blind Trust," Nance attempts to persuade the reader that airline safety has been jeopardized by the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act.

He devotes 7 chapters to Air Florida Flight 90, which crashed with ice on the wings, on January 13, 1982. In that book, Nance attempts to prove "the crash of Air Florida's Palm 90 was without question a deregulation accident."

It is a very controversial statement, because it ignores crashes which occurred before deregulation, with much the same factors as the Air Florida crash.

An example would be the Ozark takeoff crash of 12-27-68. It crashed on takeoff because of ice on the wings. The plane was a total loss, but there were no fatalities (68 on board). Ten minor injuries (passengers) and 3 crew with serious injuries. The pilots in that crash had far less experience on that DC-9 jet than the Air Florida pilots had in their 737 jet. The high death toll in the AF 90 crash, was the result of where it came down.

The Ozark pilots deliberately used an illegal reduced power for takeoff, whereas the Air Florida pilots inadvertently had reduced power, because they failed to turn on the electric anti-ice heaters for the engine power probes. That caused a false indication of more power than they actually had.

The Air Florida pilots did have their plane de-iced on the ground, but the wait for takeoff was too long, and some ice did re-accumulate. In comparison, the pre-deregulation Ozark captain refused de-icing and refused to go out and look at his wings, even after he was informed his plane was covered with ice. The mistakes and deficiencies in the Ozark crash were much the same as in the Air Florida crash, and in some items, even worse. Yet Air Florida shows up as a fatal crash and Ozark doesn't because of the differences in terrain at the crash sites.

My view is that Nance had a hidden agenda, which helped to motivate his writing of such a flawed thesis book: He was a union pilot that lost his job because his company (Braniff) went bankrupt, after the Airline Deregulation Act went into effect. Airline labor unions have been notorious opponents of Airline Deregulation, because Free-Markets are a potent force which tend to restrain the ability of those who seek to gain and enforce market monopolies, which benefit them at the expense of everyone else.

In a 1986 newspaper article, Nance insisted that airline flying is less safe than it was before Deregulation. However, Nance did not cite any statistics to back up that assertion. That is because accident statistics show just the opposite. "...accident statistics are virtually useless in measuring the potential for airline crashes," said Nance.

In fact, there is no way to objectively measure the potential for airline crashes other than to compile statistics on past accidents and to diligently investigate each new accident, to find the cause so future repetitions can be prevented. When airline safety history is measured with the historical stats, which John Nance rejects, then the only objective conclusion is that airline safety has improved significantly, from what it was before Deregulation.

There isn't one shred of solid, objective evidence to lead any rational person to conclude that the 1978 Airline Deregulation Act has been a threat to airline safety. Flying on an airliner today is far, far safer than it was in the days prior to 1978. That is historical fact.

But, John Nance is adverse to such historical facts, because they prove how wrong his "Blind Trust" thesis really is.

Robert J. Boser
Editor-in-Chief
[...]