Customer Reviews

Emergency!: Crisis in the Cockpit (Tab)

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

 

 

I have read other books on airline disasters, but they were usually dry and sterile. This book, however, takes a different approach. It tells about situations that came up for pilots during actual flights where the courage and ability of those pilots, as well as others, were sorely tested. The actual emergencies chosen are real, frightning, and even scary to read. The author does an excellent job of holding the suspense as he leads you through the emergency, minute by minute. The chosen crisis are also hold-onto-your-chair, and nail-bitting suspense ridden as you read along. It is an excellent narrative, and well written. I highly recommend this read for anyone who wants to know what it is like to be a pilot, of any sized aircraft.

Finally a book that focuses on what went right instead of what went wrong. A positive approach to aircraft incidents. Notice I did not say accidents. Through solid airmanship and crew resource management and a touch of luck, these heroic crews prevented a disaster. This book will keep you on the edge of your seat and at the same time provide a look at skills and attitudes we should try to emulate when at the controls of an aircraft. Written in a style that is understandable to a lay person. Highly recommended

A greatly enjoyable book about close calls in aviation history. I have enjoyed it a great deal and thru the interesting story telling of the author I have gathered a lot of information about a variety of different subjects related to flying. I would recomment this book for pilots and any other person interested in aviation. The good point about the book, is that even if the reader does not know a great deal about aviation, the author explains most of the terms used in a brief something that benefits the general reader and is not very much noticed by an aviation person. Every chapter is an incident or a couple of related ones and can be read by itself in any order. I enjoyed it a lot and read the whole of it in less than a week.

If you are looking for gore and tragedy, this book is not for you. The author looks at several incidents where the pilot kept his cool and saved the day from a fairly technical (though certainly easy-to-follow) perspective. A fascinating read for the air traveller and anyone interested in risk management. It includes an account of the Pan-Am hijack.

The incidents covered happened mostly in the seventies and early eighties, when the 747 was the new kid on the block and planes still had flight engineers. One can't help wondering how computerization and two-person crews have changed things in the cockpit, and I would look forward to another book on this subject.

On the contrary of the next rewiever, to read this book increases my reliance in airliner's pilots. It's a very amusing and explanatory book that carries you to the cockpit and shows you how a pilot (and, sometimes, the luck) can to convert a potential disaster in only a nasty experience. Highly recommended.

This book is certainly an interesting one, telling stories of near-fatal accidents. It's fascinating to read what is going on inside the airplane at the time, but does not focus on the technical side of aircraft accidents.

The flip side is that it doesn't get weighted down with technical language or mechanical intricacies, and really adds a human touch to the crews. The professionalism of crews both in the cockpit and in the cabin are detailed and examined, and certainly offers the reader a chance to re-evaluate the attention we pay to these individuals, who sometimes are the difference between life and death.

Some gripping pilot adventures and some agonizing accounts of outrageous pilot blunders add up to a memorable read.

The only crisis I found with the book is hat the text does not live up to the title. I wanted a bunch of near death airline crashes or near crashes - - the type where the plane ends up in a field in a number of peaces but people walk away. I wanted a minute-by-minute, blow-by-blow account. Unfortunately, that was not what this book gave me. It covered a bunch of individual occurrences of problems that happened just short of the crashes I wanted to read about. Don't get me wrong; I am not some sick person who is only interested in death and destruction. I was mostly interested in what happens to the machines that causes their problems and how the pilots and the air traffic controllers handle the situation.

I have read a number of other books by this author and found them to be a cut above average. It was just that the author has a rather dry way of story telling and the stories were not edge of the chair types. These two items combined to provide me a book that was less then what I was looking for. He is a much better author for technical and dry reviews of aircraft or reasons for aircraft crashes then tying to excite the reader with near misses. As an example of what I was looking for, if you too are looking for an exciting and interesting book, I would suggest the book Nine Minutes, Twenty Seconds: A True Story of Tragedy and Triumph by Gary M. Pomerantz. Nine Minutes is a wonderful book that literally blows the doors of this meager offering by Stewart. Overall I was disappointed and would not suggest this book unless you are a true fan of the author.

I found the book to be info. and it makes me never want to fly again

I found the book to be info. and it makes me never want to fly again