Aviation Disasters

Air travel is one of the safest modes of transportation, but when an aircraft crashes, the consequence is devastating. Why did they happen? Were they caused by bad weather, mechanical failure, or human errors? In this book, the author introduces the 10 deadliest plane crashes in aviation history. He goes through the key events that brought down the doomed commercial jets, and he discusses how we used the painful lessons to improve aviation safety.

After a plane is forced to make an emergency landing in a remote area, the surviving crew and passengers must wait until a rescue team arrives. But they soon discover they are not alone in the wilderness, and the rescue team is not showing up anytime soon.

It was 13 October 1972. Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571, carrying a team of young rugby players, their families and friends, took off for the very last time. A deadly miscalculation saw F571 crash directly into the Andean mountains to devastating consequences: the body of the plane broke violently into two, its floor torn to smithereens; seats flew out of the air taking passengers with them. In the weeks that followed, the remaining people who were on board - the society of the snow - emerged to fight a dire, gruelling battle for survival.

The most tragic accident in aviation history is more than a story of the loss of 583 lives. As gripping as the event is here in its telling, learning why the accident happened, much of it from the mouths of some of the crew who perished, is itself a story worth experiencing. The disaster did have an upside, for it has directly led to today's enviable commercial aviation safety record.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Negroni is a talented aviation journalist who clearly understands the critically important part the human factor plays in aviation safety.” —Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, pilot of US Airways 1549, the Miracle on the Hudson A fascinating exploration...

On July 25, 2000, a Concorde, the world's fastest passenger plane, was taking off from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris when it suddenly burst into flames. An airliner capable of flying at more than twice the speed of sound, the Concorde had completed 25 years of successful flights, whisking wealthy passengers - from diplomats to rock stars to corporate titans - between continents on brief and glamorous flights. Yet on this fateful day, the chartered Concorde jet, en route to America, crashed and killed all 109 passengers and crew onboard and four people on the ground.

Final Destination: Disaster informs the public, for the very first time, of what actually precipitated the controversial sale of Eastern Airlines - at one time the second largest airline in the free world - to Frank Lorenzo's Texas Air Corporation, which led to its certain demise. This unbelievable story is written by an 18-year veteran Eastern pilot who was intimately involved in many aspects of the tumultuous events that culminated in the sale.

Evasive maneuvers – break hard right! Ryan ‘Reaper’ Merrick had a good reason to jump at the offer of a fake relationship as the beautiful stranger suggested. This would be an easy way to keep a crazy matchmaker off his back. All of his friends were happily married, so they assumed he should be. Fine. Whatever. Besides, being married for thirty days was nothing, wasn’t it? Caution! Grab the handles and punch out! Sophie Lane inherited the bed-and-breakfast, but only if she was married. She had to have a husband by Friday, or the family estate would be liquidated. The idea of losing ...

Boarding an airplane strikes at least a small sense of fear into most people. Even though we all have heard that the odds of being struck by lightning are greater than the odds of perishing in a plane crash, it still doesn't feel that way. Airplane crashes might be rare, but they do happen, and they’re usually fatal. David Soucie insists that most of these deaths could be prevented. He’s worked as a pilot, a mechanic, an FAA inspector, and an aviation executive. He’s seen death up close and personal - deaths of colleagues and friends that might have been prevented if he had approved certain safety measures in the aircrafts they were handling.

The world's worst air disaster happened more than 40 years ago on a remote Atlantic Ocean island, when two fully loaded 747 passenger jets collided after a horrendous series of human errors. One of the jets, KLM Flight 4805, was traveling more than 150 miles an hour and was within seconds of lifting off when it crashed into Pan Am Flight 1736 taxiing in its path. The loss of lives was staggering - 583 dead. The crash happened after a lengthy series of major and minor human errors. In the intervening years, has aviation advanced to the point that such a disaster can't happen again?

Do you think the ocean is a dangerous place? Yes, it can be. Titanic…Amoco Cadiz…Herald of Free Enterprise…Exxon Valdez…every shipwreck tells a story. Veteran sea captain Beetashok Chatterjee reveals the stories behind 13 of the greatest civilian maritime disasters, outside the realms of war, that shook the world. Not just for the number of lives lost, but in some cases the damage caused to the environment and livelihoods, or the media attention those incidents garnered. Allow him to take you back in time and on the high seas, where you can watch and learn from these disasters—...

Air travel is one of the safest methods of transportation, but when a disaster happens, it captures the public's imagination. Learn about how airplanes are built, how researchers investigate a crash, how engineers are making planes safer, and more.

NOT ALL CONSPIRACY THEORIES ARE WRONG… When aircraft investigator Holly Aldridge examines the wreckage of a fatal crash, she finds something bolted to the wing that should never have been there. Something designed not to fly—but to kill. Her discovery thrusts her into a hidden war in the skies: a global conspiracy to weaponize contrails. The chemicals lacing the atmosphere aren’t just changing the weather—they’re rewriting humanity itself. Subjugation. Violence. Mass extinction. All hidden in plain sight, above our heads. Now Holly is hunted across continents, pursued by a ...

During a typical flight in an airliner, you will hurtle through the air at unbelievable speeds, in an aircraft the size of a house, and get thrown around by the weather conditions. No wonder some people have a deep fear of stepping into an airliner. Despite all the dangers lurking in the sky, flying is now a very safe way to travel around the world. One of the major factors that has helped aviation achieve such a strong safety record is to learn from past aviation disasters. In this gripping and insightful book, you will explore a number of tragic accidents that have sent shock waves ...

Charles Woods was 23 and just the right age to believe he was invincible. You had to believe you were invincible to fly the Hump, day after day, snaking through treacherous tops of the snow-covered mountains, with a four-engine plane loaded with 28,000 pounds of aviation gasoline. The B-24 Liberator he flew daily carried fuel from Kurmitola, India to Clair Chennault's 'Flying Tigers' in Lulaing, China. But on December 24th, 1944, his B-24 crashed on take-off and burst into flames. Although it was against regulations, Charley never buckled his seat belt on take-off, choosing to wait until ...

From historian and bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Empire of the Summer Moon comes a “captivating, thoroughly researched” (The New York Times Book Review) tale of the rise and fall of the world’s largest airship—and the doomed love story between an ambitious British...

“An intense, immersive deep dive into a wild, dangerous, and unknown world, written with the pace and appeal of a great thriller. This is nonfiction at its very best.”—Lee Child The true story of two doomed ships and a daring search-and-rescue operation that shines a light on the elite...

Read the "gripping and emotionally affecting" book where four men survived the plane crash. The pilot. A politician. A cop... and the criminal he was shackled to (Washington Post). On an icy night in October 1984, a commuter plane carrying nine passengers crashed in the remote wilderness of...

The Golden Age of Aviation is brought to life in this story of the giant Zeppelin airships that once roamed the sky—a story that ended with the fiery destruction of the Hindenburg. “Genius . . . a definitive tale of an incredible time when mere mortals learned to fly.”—Keith O’Brien...

An unwavering NTSB chief delves into an airline tragedy, colliding with her past in the form of a roguish ex-lover. As she deciphers the crash's mysteries, a shocking realization unfolds—her old flame may be entwined in the disaster more than she'd ever imagined. Imani Safe is a rising star, appointed as the first black Chair of the NTSB. But when a passenger jet crashes at the San Diego airport, Imani's personal and professional worlds collide. Her husband, Orville, is on the ill-fated flight, and Imani must navigate the treacherous aftermath of the crash while searching for him. As she ...