The Crash Detectives

Investigating the World's Most Mysterious Air Disasters

By: Christine Negroni

Narrated by: Christine Negroni

Length: 7 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times Best Seller

“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 of how humans and machines fail - leading to air disasters from Amelia Earhart to MH370 - and how the lessons learned from these accidents have made flying safer.

In The Crash Detectives, veteran aviation journalist and air safety investigator Christine Negroni takes us inside crash investigations from the early days of the jet age to the present, including the search for answers about what happened to the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. As Negroni dissects what happened and why, she explores their common themes and, most important, what has been learned from them to make planes safer. Indeed, as Negroni shows, virtually every aspect of modern pilot training, airline operation, and airplane design has been shaped by lessons learned from disaster. Along the way, she also details some miraculous saves, when quick-thinking pilots averted catastrophe and kept hundreds of people alive.

Tying in aviation science, performance psychology, and extensive interviews with pilots, engineers, human factors specialists, crash survivors, and others involved in accidents all over the world, The Crash Detectives is an alternately terrifying and inspiring book that might just cure your fear of flying, and will definitely make you a more informed passenger.

“Christine Negroni combines her investigative reporting skills with an understanding of the complexities of air accident investigations to bring to life some of history’s most intriguing and heartbreaking cases.” (Bob Woodruff, ABC News)

©2016 Christine Negroni (P)2016 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"Fascinating.... For all the horror stories in The Crash Detectives, the reasonable reader will leave the book more sanguine about modern commercial airline travel than before." (Edward Kosner, The Wall Street Journal)

"[The Crash Detectives] will bolster your knowledge of the mysteries of air travel.... Aviation journalist Christine Negroni uncovers behind-the-scenes stories of the industry’s most famous heroic saves, catastrophes and mysteries." (The Wall Street Journal - Books Every Geek Should Read This Fall)

"Christine Negroni is a talented aviation journalist who clearly understands the critically important part the human factor plays in aviation safety. She 'gets it'." (Captain Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, pilot of US Airways 1549, the "Miracle on the Hudson")

Love It!

Excellent subject matter covering a fascinating subject. Well, for me any way. After some 30 years in military aviation I have always been fascinated by the subject of air disasters. This book is a good start off point if you wish to learn more on the subject. There are even a few that I never knew about. Cool.

The absolute best book I've heard on aviation crashes

This is the best book I've listened to on aviation. It's compelling and interesting and thrilling. You won't be disappointed

Not in the industry

But my dad started flying aero planes in the 20s. After the war, my mom came home, got her pilot’s license and became a stew with American until she met and married my dad. Dad investigated crashes in the 60s and was a liaison with the pilot’s union and the FAA. His reason, he told his young daughter, was that so many crashes were blamed on ‘pilot error’ when, in fact, that might not have been the case at all. His passion was, whenever possible, clearing the names of his colleagues and finding the true cause of disasters. During his investigation of American flight 383 crash in northern KY, we children became fast friends of Toni Ketchell who was found wrapped around a tree. When a friend’s private plane went missing in Sault Saint Marie, dad taught me about EPIRB. I had his copy of Fate is the Hunter for many years, so many names underlined, so many notes in the margins. Like the author, dad always said the most dangerous part of flying is the drive to the airport.
I found this book riveting and fascinating, educational and enlightening, as a passenger and as the child of a crash detective. I will be listening again (and again and again)
The author’s recitation was compelling and so easy to listen to.
Thank you, Ms. Negroni.

Valuable expert analysis. Top-quality narration.

This book contains valuable analysis by a longstanding expert in the coverage of air disasters and near-disasters.

Also, the narration is superb. Listeners tend to adjust their expectations of a book narrated by its author, rather than by a professional voice actor or narrator. In this case you may throw away those lowered expectations, as the narration work here is of the highest quality.

Interesting read

I'm fascinated by air crashes and this book shares many of them. Rather than organizing it by crash it is organized by mechanism or something else. It jumps around a bit because of this. But very interesting.

wholesome take on the intricacies of av safety

using flight MH340 as a platform, author deliver the rich content she prepared.

while the conclusions she offers on this flight are well motivated, I felt they were too assertive in the absence of facts about what actual happened.

Otherwise, informative and entertaining for both aviation community and beyond it especially when discussing the human factors.

eye opening

like it very much and gave me many answers to questions I had concerning aviation.

good info but scatterd style

I enjoyed the book, but the writing style was difficult to follow. the stories bounced around and made it hard to follow.

Excellent Detail

I was familiar with many of the incidents the author covered from countless hours watching aviation-related documentaries. This book served to fill in many things I did not know about them, so the depth of the accounts was exactly what I was seeking.

Many authors are not great at narration, but this author's experience as an on-air aviation commentator gave her the skills required to expertly read the story while making it both interesting and entertaining.

Too many incorrect conclusions and dubious sources

The author clearly lacks the insight that an actual pilot will have.

She seems to draw her conclusions and then looks for a source, however outside of mainstream or even basic reasonableness, to justify them. Some of the sources she bases her arguments on are no better than internet conspiracy theories; others are just that.