Customer Reviews

MAYDAY: Accident Reports and Voice Transcripts from Airline Crash Investigations

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

 

 

This book reprints Voice Recorder Transcripts (when available) and NTSB findings (in terse, direct phrases) for SELECTED airline incidents, mostly from 1960 to the Columbia breakup in 2003. He generally strives not to be melodramatic in his recreations, which is a definite plus. The only thing I find annoying is his absolute refusal to reprint profanities and vulgarities spoken by the pilots in their final moments (he constantly equivocates with ("Expletive"), or my favorite ("Name of The Son Of The Deity")). But you can usually figure out what they're saying, or choose your own euphemisms.
A good book.

I was employed by a major airline for over 10 years. The book is well written and should be read by anyone interested in airline safety. Safety was a priorty with the company I worked for, but found my employer listed, which didn't suprise me.

If you want to read more about the subject I suggest you read, "Unfriendly Skies" and "Flying Blind, Flying Safe".

This is a must read for anyone who is a Pilot or likes to fly. This book reviews some of the worst aircraft accidents in history with an emphasis on pilot error (mostly stupid ones)or equipment failures for the most part. Good interesting reading with many "Black Box" conversations or a radio log. Not overly detailed but an excellent over view or reminder for both pilots and the general public. Covers the Hindenberg to the Space Shuttles as well as 9/11 incidents.

I am an avid reader of air disaster books, don't ask me why. This book has a few problems with style and syntax. It could do with a good copy-editing for readability. As it is I gave it 3 stars; I'd love to read a future edition which has been competently edited and formatted for readability.

This is a great text as an introductory reference to enthusiasts.

Each individual incident is covered only to a very basic level.
Would have liked to seen much more information for each event.

Text is rather large. Would prefer smaller text and more of it.
Definately worth the read.

Although conprehensive, there is nothing new or original here. It seems everything is either a direct reprint of published reports, or a slight rearanging of public stuff. No imagination, no editorial originalality. Just read ntsb reports.

I've always found it interesting to read the details of airliner crashes in the newspaper, particularly when they include portions of the Cockpit Voice Recorder. This is the automatically recorded conversations of the Pilot and other air crew members immediately preceeding a crash. It is worrisome that so many passengers have lost their lives because numbskulls in the cockpit have simply miscalculated and run out of fuel, forgotten to do their pre-flight checklist or had the flap control in the wrong position. Of course, there are many examples of mechanical failures which spell unavoidable doom for all aboard as well as wind-shear slamming the aircraft into the ground. Like a rubber necker at a grisly accident scene, you will be privvy to all the gory details, like the cockpit warning system pleading "Pull Up! Pull Up!" and the violent sounds of objects on the ground tearing wings off the aircraft on impact. As for me, well I'll be walking . . .