Air Disaster (Vol. 3)

Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 187567134X
Manufacturer: Australian Aviation
Average Customer Review: (From 16 total reviews)
List Price: $21.95

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Customer Reviews

NOT LIKE VOL 2 BUT STILL GOOD by Severin Olson
I must confess I found volume 3 of this series to be something of a letdown. The second volume had it all: text, pictures, balance. This one focused almost exclusively on the mechanics of each accident, and read like an aerial police report at times. One almost felt like an FAA official at his desk, signing off on documents and recommendations. Volume 2 was certainly a more enjoyable read.

Yet this work was far from a failure by any means. Technical enthusiasts may even find it better than the last two. We learn an awful lot about what keeps a plane in the air (or not) and I believe most of us could stand to learn a thing or two in this area, even if it is dull at times. The last three chapters are the best, and rank with the other books for enjoyability. The account of the Russian Airbus crash of ‘94, where the captain gave over controls to his son, is especially fascinating. Perhaps the theme of this volume is that even with advanced computers and flight controls, one disregards the laws of aerodynamics at one’s own risk.

Awesome Book by binkinsect
This book, and the others in the Air Disaster series (4 volumes as of Oct 2006), are compelling and interesting reads.

Highly Recommended

Not for Every Disaster Buff by Debra W. Waugh
This is an excellent, knowledgeable and well-researched book. If you are particularly interested in the very technical details and the how and why of airplane disasters this is an excellent source.

My failure to give the book 5 stars has to do with two shortcomings for my purposes. First, this book is too technical for my tastes. I prefer disaster books like Darkest Hours, The Winecoff Fire and others that focus on the human aspect of catastrophes. Second, the pictures in this book are a disappointment. They are all black and white, many are poor reproductions, and they don’t always provide useful illustrations to the body of the text.

This book will be an excellent purchase for some readers who want to know the technical details of airline crashes and the investigations that follow them. “Humanistic Disaster Buffs” like me probably won’t get so much from it.

A little more indulgent “own horn-blowing”… by Matthew Tesch
The artist has to confess to being really gratified at the reviews of Volume 3 expressed on this page (it’s late 2004 as I type this, so I can’t be accused of being some kind of “feedback junkie”!).

In many respects, this 3rd volume of the series was the most demanding to prepare, if for no other reason than the technological advances on flight decks and in aircraft and systems (in these more recent accidents) required both Mac and I to “get our heads around” more than “mere” airmanship matters.

To try to take some of the sting out of this techno-evolution, more effort than previously went into both the readability of the text, and the visual context of the illustrations and their captions and sideboxes.

It was a unique coup to obtain the original Russian investigation report into the Aeroflot A310 loss over Siberia; it was an unbelievable effort to translate it, cross-check it, and work from it ~ as has been Mac’s forte ~ as the basis for this chapter.

And, just as with the Erebus chapter in the previous volume, great energy was invested in trying to tell the Aeroflot A310 story in a proper context of the former USSR’s aeronautical environment. On a personal note, I have to say that my interpretation of the translated report’s sequence of events, and my subsequent graphic rendition of it over two double-page spreads, was the most demanding effort of the whole series.

We’re delighted to note that our work is still finding such an enthusiastic audience.

Matthew Tesch

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Tags: aeronautics commercial safety, aircraft, airline accidents, decision making, flying, flying aviation education safety, pilot

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