Plane Crash: The Forensics of Aviation Disasters

Excellent book! Fascinating hypothesis about Air Malaysia flight.

Perhaps the best subtitle for Plane Crash is the science of Aviation Disasters. Because unlike most books on the subject, this one is highly technical. To his credit, the author does attempt to explain all the mathematical formulae and phsyics as best he can - but this is never going to be a layman's book on plane crashes. Rather, the author breaks down plane crash types, the physics behind them, and how the problem as addressed and then remedied. His scientific analysis is complemented by observations of pilot Captain Robert Hedges.The book is organized by the phases of flight and the accidents that were most interesting: Takeoff!, Takeoff (never mind), Controlling the plane, Vanished!, Practice makes perfect, Turbulence, The 168-Ton Glider, Approach, Landing. Epilogue. In each of this sections, he starts with a seminal plane crash, dissects it along with flight physics/math, and then discusses other crashes that were similar.As an example, the first chapter starts with the crash of MK Airlines 62 in 1990 in Canada. It was notable for being a takeoff crash - the plane supposedly never left the ground. In going through the clues, discussions are created of takeoff angles, berms, pressure bulkhead locations, angle of attack, airflow, air deflection, ground pressure idle, acceleration knots, EPR amounts, runway length, locations of tail strikes from the doomed plane, take off weight calculations, runway gradients, Vr rotation speed, takeoff safety speed, etc. It gives you sentences such as: "The correct takeoff speeds for the Halifax accident flight were V1 = 150knots, VR = 162 knots, and V2 = 172 knots. The incorrect speeds, used fora plane that weighing 250,000 lbs less than the actual takeoff weight of780,000 lbs, were V1 = 128 knots, VR = 128 knots, and V2 = 137 knots." or "The density of air is sensitive to changes in altitude and temperature.The density of “standard air” (59°F at sea level) is 0.076474 lbs/foot3, about2 lbs per cubic yard. Two extremes might be Anchorage (elevation 151 feet)at −40°F (0.094 lbs/foot3) and Denver (elevation 5,431) at 100°F (0.0577 lbs/foot3)—a swing of ±24%."That's a lot of math! But the book is incredibly thorough and it is quite amazing in its depth and breadth of the subject. Anyone interested in aviation will likely find this compelling since the author treats very scientific subject manner in a smooth and matter-of-fact way.But those looking for information on airline accidents (e.g., fans of "Mayday/Air Crash Investigators") will be daunted by the sheer amount of technical information. This isn't a breakdown of a crash so much as a breakdown of how planes fly and where they fail. There's far too much technical to make a cohesive 'story' and this is more about understanding planes rather than understanding plane crashes in particular. That's not a bad thing.Plane Crash is extremely well written in that I am not a technical person nor did I study physics or math for my degree yet I found nearly all of the book to be readable (though I skipped over the breakdowns of the mathematical formulae and the more technical aspects of flight since they were not of interest to me). And this greatly increases my respect for all that goes into sleuthing the reasons why a plane crashed and how to prevent such accidents from happening again. Reviewed from an advance reader copy provided by the publisher.

An insightful and interesting book, ideal for students of aviation, aeronautical science, prospective engineers and anyone who wants to delve deeper into modern flight, flight safety, and lessons-learned from accidents. The book also offers a unique counterpoint, from Professor Bibel who analyzes the fundamental engineering issues of aircraft mechanical failures, along with operational and human factor insights from Captain Hedges, a certified Boeing/Airbus pilot. Their accounts of incredible near disasters and unfortunate accidents dig way beneath the typical sensational stories of news accounts. For example, you'll learn exactly how and why a 170 ton jet flying at 40,000 feet over the Atlantic lost all its fuel yet was still able to land, by gliding 75 miles to an airfield in the Azores. Engaging case studies are included for each major flight phase (takeoff, climb, cruise, approach, and landing) with detailed description of the basic physics of aircraft accidents, supported with all the relevant facts and statistics.

I finally caved and got this book. I instantly regret it, the book was was too long and boring, very little talked about air disasters, mainly it was near misses, and even very little of that, it was mostly boring technical talk. Avoid this book at all costs of you want you read about air disasters like the TV show. Also, this book was way too expensive. I had to force myself through this book, and I just skimmed through it, and read only what interested me, which was very little of this book. The author seems to just reference another very expensive book for his sources, which I'm sure is much of the same. This is not for the common guy interested in air disasters, pretty much for aviation professionals.

A great book.