Flight 232

A Story of Disaster and Survival

By: Laurence Gonzales

Narrated by: Victor Bevine

Twenty-five years after the catastrophe, a dramatic and extraordinarily rare 360-degree view of the crash of a fully loaded jumbo jet.

As hundreds of rescue workers waited on the ground, United Airlines Flight 232 wallowed drunkenly over the bluffs northwest of Sioux City. The plane slammed onto the runway and burst into a vast fireball. The rescuers didn't move at first: nobody could possibly survive that crash. And then people began emerging from the summer corn that lined the runways. Miraculously, 184 of 296 passengers lived. No one has ever attempted the complete reconstruction of a crash of this magnitude. Drawing on interviews with hundreds of survivors, crew, and airport and rescue personnel, Laurence Gonzales, a commercial pilot himself, captures, minute-by-minute, the harrowing journey of pilots flying a plane with no controls and flight attendants keeping their calm in the face of certain death. He plumbs the hearts and minds of passengers as they pray, bargain with God, plot their strategies for survival, and sacrifice themselves to save others.

Ultimately he takes us, step-by-step, through the gripping scientific detective work in super-secret labs to dive into the heart of a flaw smaller than a grain of rice that shows what brought the aircraft down. An unforgettable drama of the triumph of heroism over tragedy and human ingenuity over technological breakdown, Flight 232 is a masterpiece in the tradition of the greatest aviation stories ever told.

©2014 Laurence Gonzales (P)2014 Audible Inc.

Riveting

I'm a former Eastern flight attendant and I had a very similar incident (that ended well), so this was a riveting story from beginning to end. Great writing and presentation kept me awake trying to finish this remarkable story!

Quite good!

Very thorough in terms of how it approached this incident on both a human and technical level. My one complaint was the authors apparent fascination with people's religious (Christian) observations during and after the crash. Would have appreciated a more well rounded survey of the spiritual impact for other religions/athesists/etc, as in the end sharing the Christian perspective over and over came across as a bit preachy

Starts out strong

Gets a little dull towards the end. Identifies many individuals but fails to tell the complete story for several leaving the reader to guess as to the outcome.

Really enjoyed it.

Based on other reviews, I chose this book and agree that there is a great mix of technical/practical/emotional.

Intense!

The amount of research and details of this accident and the investigation is astounding! At times, difficult to listen but was done well.