Air Crashes and Miracle Landings: 60 Narratives (How, When ... and Most Importantly Why) - Softcover

Bartlett, Christopher

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0956072321 ISBN 13: 9780956072320

Publisher: OpenHatch Books, 2010

Synopsis

An expanded second edition of Air Crashes and Miracle Landings covering eighty-five incidents will be released on January 29, 2018. Kindle version can already be pre-ordered. 

About this title

About the Author:

Christopher Bartlett initially trained as a mining engineer, a field where ensuring compliance with safety standards is of prime importance. His passion, however, has been flying, and notably air safety. This was engendered as an Air Cadet during his youth, as a member of the British Interplanetary Society, and as a pupil breaking the sound barrier on fighter simulators at the Air Ministry. After his two years’ military service in the British Royal Air Force, he took a degree in Modern Chinese and Japanese at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London University, and became amongst other things a professional translator of Japanese scientific and technical material. This included Japanese rocket tests. He also wrote for magazines in the Far East. His understanding of English, French, and Japanese has enabled him to some five years research for this book based on material published in its original format and note opinions and facts not previously widely publicized. His chance presence in countries at times when headline air crashes occurred there has also enabled him to add local color and extra details to a number of these accounts. He saw the need for a book such as this while residing in Bangkok, when a 100 M.P.H. runway overrun by a Boeing 747 operated by the world’s so-called safest airline (Qantas) was dismissed as a mere mishap. It was subsequently found that the airline had allegedly spent A$100,000,000 on having the aircraft repaired and was thus able to continue to claim it had never suffered a hull loss.

Review:

Got it. Read it. Want more. I think the book is excellent--interestingly presented and gripping to read. --Phillip Knightley, author and prize-winning journalist

AVIATION ACCIDENTS INVARIABLY attract media speculation on their causes, but it is sometimes months before the official investigators issue their reports, by which time anyone without a specific interest in a crash will have forgotten how they have often blamed the pilot who was probably not to blame anyway.

This new book sets out to answer how, when, and why accidents happened, such as the shooting down of an Iranian Airbus A300 by an American warship; the clearing of fog at Zurich Airport by a Caravelle taxiing up and down the runway, overheating the brakes and causing the aircraft to crash on takeoff; and even more weird, the pre-programing of a DC-10 flight to hit Mount Erebus on a sightseeing trip.

There are chapters on the Amelia Earhart mystery, the shooting down of von Richthofen, the worst-ever aircraft accident at Tenerife when two Boeing 747s collided on the runway, and many other incidents. All are cataloged in detail and make very interesting reading, although not just before you board your holiday jet. It is good that these facts are published and not just forgotten. -- Mike Hooks, AEROPLANE Magazine, September 2010

The accurate details the author painstakingly assembled make it such a valuable reference for all the "classic" international jet accidents. It reads beautifully, with excellent and clear expression avoiding the tiresome cliches that unfortunately so often mar a book on this fascinating subject. --Macarthur Job OAM, Aviation Writer and Air Safety Consultant

About this edition

• Publisher: OpenHatch Books
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0956072321
• ISBN 13: 9780956072320
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 370