Air Disaster (Vol. 3) (Paperback)

~ Macarthur Job (Author), Matthew Tesch (Author) "For aviation enthusiasts in and around the ancient French provincial town of Mulhouse, in the upper Rhine valley, near the junction of the Swiss and..." (more)
Key Phrases: Airbus Industrie, Air Ontario, Colorado Springs (more...)

Product Details

• Paperback: 188 pages
• Publisher: Australian Aviation (January 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 187567134X
• ISBN-13: 978-1875671342
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.2 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #309,303 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A lot of work went into this..., June 1, 2002

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

Sometimes, it is uncanny when the pilots say something in the cockpit that is later retrieved by the voice-recorder, it is as if they knew something was going to happen. Like the United Airlines pilot that commented: "Nice looking day - hard to believe the skies are unfriendly."

The most interesting one I found was where the Thai Airways A310 crashed into the Himalayas in Nepal. How could a plane crash into a mountain? Communication errors, mainly. But you'll have to read it to find out.

Another unusual one, was when the pilot's children came to the cockpit of a Russian Aeroflot plane and the son then "flew" the aircraft under his father's supervision, leading to the rather drastic consequences of everyone aboard perishing. It was not as you might think, the son's fault, rather, the autopilot disconnected without them becoming aware of it and the fact that the captains control-yoke overrides the second officer's.

After reading the first three books, my respect for pilots has increased tenfold. Most of them do what they think is the correct action (at the time) for averting a disaster. It is all too easy to say with the benefit of hindsight that they should have done this or they should have done that. It has also made me aware, that it is often pilot error that causes incidents. Rarely does a "wing fall off" like I used to think happened. Oh, and bring back the Flight Engineer - had they been present on flight decks during some of the more recent incidents of this book, they probably could have prevented or averted those disasters.

I would like to see the authors make a 5th instalment, focusing on more recent disasters, and ones in which the circumstances are caused by something other than turbulence or the autopilot being in the wrong mode. Such as the collision caused in Lima, Peru on October 2nd, 1997 -where a pilot radioed that his cockpit instrumentation was malfunctioning. Turned out workers forgot to remove the duct tape that they had placed over key sensors while cleaning the plane. In this edition, too many of the crashes are similar, and it is like reading the same story twice.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Air Disaster 3, December 30, 1999

By	David Knudsen (Brisbane, Australia) - See all my reviews

Air Disaster 3 lives up to the high standard of Air Disaster Volumes 1 & 2. It takes an in depth look at several major air disasters, and includes information from before the incident, then describes what happened and then explains why. Has great graphics and photos. The best Aviation Safety related book I have ever read.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling and Detailed, August 4, 2004

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

Once again, Macarthur Job delves into the world that houses our darkest fears. Written in striking detail thanks to the increased parameters and quality of CVR/FDR recordings, Job takes the stuff of nightmare and soothes the reader, with the knowledge that the answer is always found at the end.

Written above the average reading level, Job does draw on his substantial experience and knowledge of the working of planes. However, even the average traveler will be reassured by the competence, while sometimes surprised by the choices, of the flight crews in this book.

I would like to see Job take on some of the more messy cases of the present days - this series is a very even-handed review of accidents with no speculation or questioning conclusions. I look forward, as always, to the next installment!