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3. Accident Investigation and Safety Management
86. Alston, Gregory. How Safe Is Safe Enough? Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2003. 122 pages. Organized as follows:
Managing risk in an uncertain world
Leading the risk game
Costs of losing the risk game
Universal probabilities
Risk management
System safety: designing out risk
Organizational risk
Personal risk management
The safety program
Change: the way ahead
How safe is safe enough? The answer
Bibliography
Index
87. Barlay, Stephen. Aircrash Detective: The Quest for Aviation Safety-an International Report. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1969, 376 pages. British edition of The Search for Air Safety. A revised paperback edition was published by Hodder in 1975.
88. Barlay, Stephen. The Search for Air Safety: An International Documentary on the Investigation of Commercial Aviation Accidents. New York: Morrow, 1970, 376 pages. American edition of the British book, Aircrash Detective. Index. Bibliography. Photographs. The author discusses the following accidents and incidents in some detail:
· Cunard-Eagle Viking 3B Aug. 9, 1961 (G-AHPM) Sola, Norway
· American B-707-123B March 1, 1962 (N7506A) Jamaica Bay, NY
·
BOAC Comet 1 Jan. 10, 1954 (G-ALYP)
near Elba
Explosive decompression due to fuselage skin fatigue. See also: Dempster,
The Tale of the Comet.
·
South African Comet 1 April 8,
1954 (G-ALYY) near Naples, Italy
Explosive decompression due to fuselage skin fatigue. Note: This aircraft was
leased to SAA from BOAC. See also: Dempster,
The Tale of the Comet.
·
National DC-6B Jan. 6, 1960
(N8225H) Bolivia, NC
Sabotage. See also: Williams,
Flight 967.
· Air France B-707 June 3, 1962 (F-BHSM) Orly Airport, France
· Caledonian DC-7C March 4, 1962 (G-ARUD) Douala, Cameroon
· BEA Viscount 701 March 14, 1957 (G-ALWE) Manchester, England
· BEA Vanguard 951 Oct. 27, 1965 (G-APEE) London, England
·
United B-727 Aug. 16, 1965 (N7036U) Lake Michigan
Descent into water on approach to Chicago due to misread altimeter?
· American B-727 Nov. 8, 1965 (N1996) Cincinnati, OH
· United B-727 Nov. 11, 1965 (N7030U) Salt Lake City, UT
· All Nippon B-727 Feb. 4, 1966 (JA-8302) Tokyo Bay, Japan
· Balair DC-4 May 15, 1960 (HB-LLA) Mt. Marra, Sudan
· British United Viscount Oct. 30, 1961 (G-AODH) Frankfurt, Germany
· BEA Comet 4B Dec. 21, 1961 (G-ARJM) Ankara, Turkey
· TWA Martin 404 Feb. 19, 1955 (N40416) Albuquerque, NM
· BOAC Comet 4 Feb. 2, 1964 (G-APDL) Nairobi, Kenya
· Central African Viscount Aug. 9, 1958 (VP-YNE) Benina
· SAS Caravelle Jan. 19, 1960 (OY-KRB) Ankara, Turkey
· Trans Canada DC-8 Nov. 6, 1963 (CF-TJM) London, England
· BOAC Canadair DC-4M Sept. 21, 1955 (G-ALHL) Tripoli, Libya
· Capital Viscount 745 April 6, 1958 (N7437) Freeland, MI
· Continental Viscount 812 Jan. 29, 1963 (N242V) Kansas City, MO
·
BEA Airspeed Ambassador Feb. 6,
1958 (G-ALZU) Munich, Germany
See also: Williamson,
The
Munich Air Disaster.
· Eastern DC-8 Nov. 9, 1963 (N8603) near Houston, TX
· Eastern DC-8 Feb. 25, 1964 (N8607) near New Orleans, LA
· Aer Lingus DC-3 Jan. 10, 1952 (EI-AFL) Mt. Snowdon, Ireland
· Northwest B-720B Feb. 12, 1963 (N724US) near Miami, FL
· Continental B-707 May 17, 1966 (N57204) Kansas City, MO
·
TWA B-707/Eastern L-1049 Dec. 4, 1965 (N748T/N6218) Carmel, NY
Mid-air collision. B-707 landed at JFK with thirty feet of its left wing
missing. The L-1049 was successfully landed in a field. EAL’s heroic Captain
White perished with one passenger who was trapped in the burning fuselage after
he re-entered the aircraft in an attempt to free him.
· United DC-8/TWA L-1049 Dec. 16, 1960 (N8013U/N6907C) near Staten Island, NY
· American Flyers L-188 April 22, 1966 (N183H) Ardmore, OK
·
Eastern DC-7B Feb. 8, 1965 (N849D) Jones Beach, NY
Did not recover from the resulting unusual attitude at night after a near miss
with a Pan American B-707.
· BEA Viscount 802 Oct. 23, 1957 (G-AOJA) Belfast, Ireland
89. Brookes, Andrew. Flights to Disaster. London: Ian Allan, 1996. 160 pages. Contains the following chapters:
Abbreviations & Glossary
Introduction
1 As Luck Would Have It
2 Prepare for Take-Off
3 See and Be Seen
4 Design Faults
5 Climb Every Mountain
6 These Foolish Things
7 The Vincennes Incident
8 The Challenger Space Shuttle
9 Deep Freeze
10 Fire Alarm
11 Cockpit Indiscipline
12 Happy Landings
13 Afterthought
Select Bibliography
Index
89a. Center for Public Integrity. In the Unlikely Event . . . : The Politics of Airline Safety. Washington, DC: The Center for Public Integrity, 1998. 94 pages.
90. Chiles, James R. Inviting Disaster: Lessons from the Edge of Technology. New York: Collins, 2002. 368 pages.
90a. Collar, Charles S. Barnstorming to Air Safety. Lysmata, 1998. 176 pp.
91. Curtis, Todd. Understanding Aviation Safety Data : Using the Internet and Other Sources to Analyze Air Travel Risk. Warrendale, PA: Society of Automotive Engineers, 2000. 209 pages.
Chapter 1: Introduction and Overview
Chapter 2: Basic Concepts of Risk and Safety
Chapter 3: Aviation Safety Data
Chapter 4: Aviation Safety Data and the Internet
Chapter 5: Traditional Sources of Aviation Safety Data
Chapter 6: Systematic Analysis of Aviation Safety Questions
Chapter 7: Example Analyses Using Data from Non-Internet Data Sources
Chapter 8: Example Analyses Using Data from Internet Data Sources
Chapter 9: Aviation Data Resources
Appendix 1: Top 10 Airline Safety Questions from AirSafe.com
Appendix 2: Fatal Passenger Events Involving U.S. and Canadian Airlines
1985 -1999
Appendix 3: Accident and Incident Reporting Regulations
Appendix 4: Ten Tips for Using the Web More Effectively
Appendix 5: Post Accident Information Checklist
Appendix 6: Contact Information for Aviation Organizations
Appendix 7: Analysis Process Checklist
92. Davies, Carl A. Plane Truth: A Private Investigator’s Story. New York: Algora, 2001. 244 pages.
93. Department of Transportation (US). Investigations of Aircraft Accidents, 1934 to 1965. Archives of older aircraft accident reports organized by date. See NTSB for newer reports. Available online: http://dotlibrary1.specialcollection.net/scripts/ws.dll?websearch&site=dot_aircraftacc
94. Dorman, Michael. Detectives of the Sky: Investigating Aviation Tragedies. New York: Franklin Watts, 1976. 107 pages. Short bibliography. Index. Photographs. Suitable for younger readers. This book is organized as follows:
· The Investigators and Their Work
· Government Agencies and Air Safety
· The Deadliest Air Crash-An Unnecessary Tragedy
· The Jinxed Electras—A Hard Case to Crack
· Sabotage with Bombs
· Double Disaster-Collisions in the Sky
· A Roundup of Recent Case Histories
This book discusses the following accidents in some detail:
·
Turk Hava Yollari DC-10 March 5,
1974 (TC-JAV) near Paris, France
See also: Eddy, Potter, and Page,
Destination Disaster;
Fielder and Birsch,
The DC-10 Case;
Godson,
The Rise and Fall of the DC-10;
Johnston,
The Last Nine Minutes: The Story of
Flight 981.
·
Braniff L-188 Electra Sept. 29, 1959 (N9705C)
Buffalo, TX
See also: Serling,
The Electra Story.
·
Northwest L-188 Electra March
17, 1960 (N122US) Tell City, IN
See also: Serling,
The Electra Story.
· United DC-6B Nov. 1, 1955 (N37559) Longmont, CO
·
National DC-6B Jan. 6, 1960
(N8225H) Bolivia, NC
See also: Williams,
Flight 967.
· National DC-7B Nov. 16, 1959 (N4891C) near New Orleans, LA
· United DC-7/TWA L-1049 June 30, 1956 (N6324C/N6902C) Grand Canyon, AZ
· United DC-7/Air Force F-100F April 21, 1958 (N6328C/NA) near Las Vegas, NV
· United DC-8/TWA L-1049 Dec. 16, 1960 (N8013U/N6907C) near Staten Island, NY
· Pan Am B-707-321C Nov. 3, 1973 (N458PA) Boston, MA
·
Eastern DC-9 Sept. 11, 1974
(N8984E) Charlotte, NC
See also: Stockton,
Final Approach: The Crash of Eastern
212.
· Western B-720B March 31, 1971 (N3166) Ontario, CA (training flight)
95. Ellis, Glenn. Air Crash Investigation of General Aviation Aircraft. Greybull, WY: Glendale Books, 1984. 239 pages. A paperback edition is also available. The title is somewhat misleading since the book goes beyond just general aviation accident investigation and ventures into airline accidents also. Was used at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Daytona Beach campus in their graduate course, MAS 608-Aviation/Aerospace Accident Investigation and Safety Systems. Index. References. Air Crash Investigation of General Aviation Aircraft is a step-by-step discussion of accident investigation procedures including:
· Who’s Involved?
· Initial Action
· In-Depth Investigation
· Difficult to Reach Wreckage
· Analysis of Wreckage
· Finding and Establishing Facts
· Whose Liability?
· Legal Implications
96. Enders Associates International. Safety Assessment for Alaska Airlines, Inc. Seattle, Washington, Conducted during the period 10 April – 18 May, 2000, Report and Recommendations. Available online: http://www.alaskasworld.com/news/2000/07/AS_Final_Report.pdf
97. Faith, Nicholas. Black Box: Why Air Safety is No Accident. Osceola, WI: Motorbooks International, 1997. 185 pages. Black Box contains a good overview of the history of commercial aircraft accident investigation and though it was first published in the U.K. (by Boxtree in 1996), it contains well-balanced and extensive coverage of both U.K. and U.S. accident investigation practices focusing on the activities of the “tin-kickers” (accident investigators). It is the companion volume to the four-part television documentary, “Survival in the Sky,” which was extremely well done and also highly recommended. For the most part, it presents a fair and accurate picture of the many-times enormous tasks faced by safety investigators when confronting a major crash. However, I suspect much of the book was written from the extensive interviews conducted to complete the documentary and several errors resulted from the transcriptions. For example, Dr. T. Theodore Fujita (of microburst and tornado fame) is referred to as “Fujiya” in the text (pages. 131, 132). Also, while many accidents are given extensive and accurate coverage, others are oversimplified to the point of being somewhat misleading such as the Swissair Caravelle accident that occurred shortly after takeoff in 1963 (page 128). An exaggerated statement “Every year approximately 1,500 airline passengers die” appears both in the introduction and on the dust jacket. In reality, the figure is closer to 800 per year, and has varied from 138 in 1984 to 1,236 in 1973. Other errors are of a minor nature, such as the “North-West Airlines Boeing 727 near Miami in February 1963” (pages. 128-129--it was a B-720B) and “advent of pressurized airliners, starting with Boeing’s [377] Stratocruiser” (page 129—the first pressurized airliner was Boeing’s 307 Stratoliner). Despite these minor errors, Black Box is a good read and is highly recommended for those wishing to get a brief overview of the accident investigation process. Lufthansa’s Capt. Heino Caesar makes a good point when everyone is buzzing about pilot error being a cause or factor in 80% of the world’s airline disasters: “In hundreds and thousands of cases pilots have prevented an accident by their action, … Only in very very few cases have they failed, and this amounts to approximately fifteen total losses a year with an average of 500 deaths” (page 145). The book includes a decent index, laymen will welcome the glossary of acronyms, and a list of interviewees. It does not, however, contain a bibliography or chapter references. This well-written book takes the reader on a journey ranging from the de Havilland Comet crash investigations of the early 1950s to the present day and is highly recommended.
98. Ferry, Ted S. Modern Accident Investigation and Analysis. 2nd ed. New York: John Wiley, 1988. 306 pages. Contains information on corporate accident investigation which contains theories that are relevant to aircraft accident investigation.
99. General Electric Company. Jet Engine Accident Investigation. Cincinnati, OH: Aircraft Gas Turbine Division, General Electric Co., 1959. Highly illustrated. No index. No bibliography. The book is organized as follows:
· Theory of Jet Engine Operation
· Jet Engine Systems
· Malfunction Analysis
· Power Estimation Cause
· Factor Analysis
· Fuel and Oil Contamination
100. Global Aviation Information Network (GAIN). Operator’s Flight Safety Handbook. 2nd ed. Washington, DC: Global Aviation Safety Network, 2002. Available online: http://204.108.6.79/products/products_AviationOperator.cfm
101. Grimaldi, John V., and Rollin H. Simmonds. Safety Management. 5th ed. Homewood, IL: Irwin, 1989. 651 pages. Concerns safety management in general, but many of the theories presented can be applied to airline operations as well. Used in Central Missouri State University’s master’s program in Aviation Safety and Management. Index. End-of-chapter references. Some illustrations, tables, and graphs. More applicable to airline safety programs for ground personnel than to flight operations safety.
102. Hardy, Rex. Callback: NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990. 208 pages.
103. Harper, Charles R. Aircraft Accident Investigation. Washington, DC: Federal Aviation Agency, 1963.
104. International Civil Aviation Organization. Accident Prevention Manual (ICAO document 9422). Montreal, Canada: International Civil Aviation Organization, 1984. 136 pages. Along with Dr. Wood’s Aviation Safety Programs, this volume is essential for airline safety departments. The Accident Prevention Manual is a compendium of useful materials designed to aid member states in accident prevention activities. Revisions are issued irregularly. No index. Designed as an overview rather than an in-depth analysis, the sections are organized as follows:
· Accident Prevention Roles and Functions
· Accident Prevention Concepts
· Accident Prevention Activities
· Prevention Organizations
· Summary
· Practical Applications (Appendix A)
· Accident Prevention Training (Appendix B)
· Examples of Voluntary Incident Reporting Systems (Appendix C)
· Examples of Mandatory Incident Reporting Systems (Appendix D)
· Examples of Safety Promotion Material (Appendix E)
· Safety Promotion Material Available in States (Appendix F)
105. International Civil Aviation Organization. Manual of Aircraft Accident Investigation (ICAO document 6920). 4th ed. Montreal, Canada: International Civil Aviation Organization, 1970. 752 pages. Incorporates amendments 1 through 10. ICAO’s equivalent of the 4 vol. NTSB Investigator’s Manual. Presents the accident investigation standards formulated by ICAO for its member states. Revisions are issued irregularly. Numerous half-tone photographs. No index. The volume is organized as follows:
· General Considerations and Notification of Accidents
· Organization of the Investigation
· The Investigation
· Reporting of Occurrences
· Accident Prevention
Appendices:
· Definitions and Symbols
· Photography
· Flight Recorders-Type in Use Flight Recorders-Examples of Read-out
· Examples of Fracture Analysis
· Examples of Sequence of Failure Investigation
· Examples of Electrical Systems Investigation
· Aircraft Weight and Balance
· Identification of Victims
· In-Flight Breakup
· Mid-Air Collision Analysis
· Fire Investigation
· States’ Flight Recorder Playback Facilities and Techniques
· Accident Report Forms
· Conversion Tables and Diagrams
· Addresses of Accident Investigation Authorities
· List of National Laws and Regulations Relating to Aircraft Accident Investigation
· Selection and Training of Accident Investigators and Accident Investigator Courses Available in States
· Expert Assistance and Facilities Available on Request for the Investigation of Major Accidents
106. Jones, Fred H. Air Crash: The Clues in the Wreckage. London: Robert Hale, 1985. 221 pages. A founding member of the Accidents Section of the British Royal Aircraft Establishment, Jones has written an excellent overview of the practice of aircraft accident investigation. Citing many examples of military accidents as well as those involving commercial airliners, Jones recounts his personal involvement in the investigations. Glossary. Half-tone photographs and line drawings. No bibliography. Index. The brief appendix is entitled “Aeroplane Accident Investigation in the United Kingdom.” The commercial accidents discussed in some detail are as follows:
· BOAC Comet 1 Jan. 10, 1954 (G-ALYP) near Elba
· BOAC Comet 1 April 8, 1954 (G-ALYY) near Naples, Italy
· Bristol Britannia Nov. 6, 1957 (G-ANCA) Bristol, England
· Capital Viscount April 6, 1958 (N7437) Saginaw, MI
· BEA Comet 4B Dec. 21, 1961 (G-ARJM) Ankara, Turkey
· BOAC B-707-436 March 5, 1966 (G-APFE) Mt. Fuji, Japan
· BEA Comet 4B Oct. 12, 1967 (G-ARCO) east of Rhodes
· YPF HS-748 April 14, 1976 (LV-HHB) Argentina
107. Jones, Fred H. Analysis of the Wreckage. Farnborough: Royal Aircraft Establishment, 1962.
108. Krause, Shari Stamford. Aircraft Safety: Accident Investigations, Analyses, and Applications. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional, 2003. 384 pages.
109. Lebow, Cynthia C., Ed. Safety in the Skies : Personnel and Parties in NTSB Aviation Accident Investigations. Santa Monica, CA: Rand, 1999. 65 pages.
110. McCormick, Barnes Warnock, and M. P. Papadakis. Aircraft Accident Reconstruction and Litigation. 3rd ed. Lawyers & Judges, 2003.
111. National Transportation Safety Board. US accident reports and other data from 1967 to the present. See Department of Transportation (US) for older reports. Available online: http://www.ntsb.gov/
112. Oster, Clinton V., John S. Strong, and C. Kurt Zorn. Why Airplanes Crash: Aviation Safety in a Changing World. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992. 200 pages. This book is strong on accident statistics and rates safety by individual airline (Chapter 5). Updates the airline safety statistics contained in Eddy, Potter, and Page, Destination Disaster. Also discusses the aviation security and aging aircraft questions. Many tables. Index. References.
113. Owen, David. Air Accident Investigation. 3rd ed. UK: Sutton, 2006. 224 pages. This book provides a good overview of the subject and runs the gamut of commercial flight from the earliest days to the present. Many well-chosen photographs and diagrams illustrate the text and provide the cogency needed by people new to the subject. Few of the accidents are discussed in depth, but the number and selection of the accidents presented would require many volumes to do this. However, Owen does have a good grasp of what’s important and the major factors in each accident are expanded adequately enough to make this book valuable and interesting.
114. Panas, John. Aircraft Mishap Photography: Documenting the Evidence. Ames IA: Iowa State University Press, 1996. 156 pages.
115. Patton, O. E. History and Development of Flight Recorders. Washington, DC: Civil Aeronautics Board, 1966.
116. Perrow, Charles. Normal Accidents. Updated edition. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999. 386 pages.
Abnormal Blessings
Introduction
1. Normal Accident at Three Mile Island
2. Nuclear Power as a High-Risk System: Why We Have Not Had More TMIs--But Will
Soon
3. Complexity, Coupling, and Catastrophe
4. Petrochemical Plants
5. Aircraft and Airways
6. Marine Accidents
7. Earthbound Systems: Dams, Quakes, Mines, and Lakes
8. Exotics: Space, Weapons, and DNA
9. Living with High-Risk Systems
Afterword
Postscript: The Y2K Problem
List of Acronyms
Notes
Bibliography
Index
117. Phillips, E.H., Jr. (1994, 29 August). Focus on accident prevention key to future airline safety. Aviation Week & Space Technology 141(9), 52-53. The article summarizes the added importance accident prevention activities will take in the future. “Based on projected fleet growth, [D.] Russell [Chief Engineer, Airplane Safety Engineering, Boeing] predicts, ‘one jet transport hull loss every week’ will occur by 2010 unless strong, preventive measures are taken by the industry to reduce accidents” (page 32). Fleet growth figures were based on pre-September 11, 2001 figures and may not accurately estimate accident numbers in 2010.
118. Ray, Sally J. Strategic Communication in Crisis Management: Lessons from the Airline Industry. Westport, CT: Quorum Books, 1999. 260 pages.
119. Reason, James. Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 1997. 252 pages. James Reason’s book, Managing the Risks of Organizational Accidents contains much information concerning the aviation industry, although it discusses issues in other industries as well, and discusses safety management from both the theoretical and practical perspectives. He makes a good case for making the levels of safety and information synonymous and he developed the model used in this study. Reason states, “competence is very closely related to the quality of the organization’s safety information system. Does it collect the right information? Does it disseminate it? Does it act upon it? Paired comparison studies—examining pairs of companies matched in all respects except for safety performance—have shown that the two characteristics most likely to distinguish safe organizations from less safe ones are, firstly, top-level commitment and, secondly, the possession of an adequate safety information system” (page113). Reason states, “however, safety measures are more like religion—there is a great deal of praying (process), but few miracles (product)” (page 114). Reason states, “errors are essentially information-processing problems and require the provision of better information, either in the person’s head or in the workplace.” The book is organized as follows:
· Hazards, losses and defences
· Defeating the defences
· Dangerous defences
· The human contribution
· Maintenance can seriously damage your system
· Navigating the safety space
· A practical guide to error management
· The regulator’s unhappy lot
· Engineering a safety culture
· Reconciling the different approaches to safety management.
120. Schiavo, Mary, with Sabra Chartrand. Flying Blind, Flying Safe. New York: Avon Books, 1997. 373 pages.
“Schiavo’s book, although meant to be a blockbuster, was obviously completed in a rush after she resigned her position as Inspector General in charge of overseeing the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration). It could have been a much better book if the timing wasn’t so critical. Numerous factual errors and some amateurish prose (even with a second author) make the book quite a bit less than it could have been. Although the book contains references, there is no index (a large omission in any work of non-fiction).
First, it must be realized that the FAA has many good and conscientious employees who try to do the job of overseeing our nation’s air carrier industry with too few resources. The FAA’s organizational structure is just too bureaucratic for many of its employees to think they can make a tangible difference individually. Second, the dual mandate that the FAA both promote and oversee the aviation industry might be too dichotomous in nature for both mandates to be served effectively. Third, Schiavo paints a picture that airlines are constantly attempting to cut corners in safety matters if they weren’t restrained from doing so by the Far (Federal Aviation Regulations) and the FAA. Contrary to this belief, most carriers would continue to insist on a safe operation even if the FAA did not exist. When the statistics are perused, most of the air carriers in the world are safe, many outstandingly so. An air carrier’s very existence, economically-speaking, demands a reasonably safe operation be maintained.
Schiavo does, however, make some very good points in areas that need improving. But like many issues in today’s society, and specifically concerning the dichotomy of airline safety, the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle of a continuum (the opposite ends of which might be marked “Unsafe” and “Safe”), with the safety of individual carriers, aircraft, and airports occupying different locations on the continuum.
The following excerpts illustrate some of the technical foibles that can be found throughout the book:
. . . “if no one was hurt or killed, then its just an incident, not an accident.” (page 66) Schiavo needs to review the NTSB definitions of “incident” and “accident.”
Refers to a sextant as a “sexton.” (page 160)
“In tests, wings are flexed as much as 150 degrees from their normal position.” (page 214) Figure this one out.
Referring to Lockheed’s L-1011, “as with the DC-10, their past troubles made a lot of people wary of flying them.” (page 229) The L-1011 is one of the safest and systems-redundant aircraft in the air; this author knows of no previous or current inherent problems with the L-1011 that would make passengers “wary” of flying on them.
Referring to aging aircraft, “It can’t be mere coincidence that TWA is getting rid of its fleet of old 747s and replacing them with newer 767s and 757’s.” (page 231) TWA replaced its 747s for purely economic reasons, with its high fuel, engine overhaul, and crew costs. An airplane may be used safely as long as the carrier deems necessary as long as it is properly maintained and undergoes regular structural inspections.
Again referring to the L-1011, “The plane has only six exits as opposed to eight in most planes.” (page 234) The majority of the L-1011s had eight exits. Only the shorter, long-range L-1011-500 had six.
Definition of “cross-check.” (page 241) Huh?
Definition of “pilot deviations.” (page 249) Includes inadvertent altitude, heading, or course deviations, usually due to misunderstanding with ATC (Air Traffic Control) or complacency.
Referring to wind shear, “It is also a mystery--no one really understands how it affects plane performance.” (page 288) Wind shear has been actively studied since the 1975 Eastern B-727-225 accident at JFK (which the author mistakenly refers to as an L-1011 on page 265).
Although there are many more errors in the book, the foregoing is a sample. For most passengers, the most useful and accurate chapters in the book are: Chapter 15 “Straighten Up and Fly Right, and Chapter 16 “Flying Healthy.” Arguably, the most unusual and entertaining chapter is Chapter 7 “Relative Truth: CULT-ure at the FAA,” which describes some of the bizarre practices employed at FAA management seminars conducted by Gregory May.” (review first appeared in Airways magazine)
121. Stich, Rodney. Unfriendly Skies: 20th and 21st Centuries. 4th ed. Alamo, CA: Diablo Western Press, 2005. 518 pages. Update of the controversial book about the safety problems an FAA Inspector finds at United Airlines and how he is snubbed in his efforts at reform. An aviation “Watergate.” According to the book, the government even incarcerated Mr. Stich for a period of time in an effort to quash his opinions. Although United did suffer an inordinate number of accidents during the period Mr. Stich was a Principle Operations Inspector (POI) at the carrier, United is a very large carrier with thousands of departures every day, and it seems its safety record is currently very good. In the mid 1990s, United vastly improved its flight operations documentation used by flight crews by increasing the depth and breadth of its operating and systems coverage. These documents (primarily the aircraft operating manuals (AOM) were criticized by some of the Pan Am pilots transitioning to United after United bought both Pan Am’s Pacific routes and aircraft in the 1980s (see Robert Gandt’s Skygods: The Fall of Pan Am). Concerning United’s recent safety record compared with that of Qantas, see the annotation of Barlay’s book, The Final Call. Still, Mr. Stich’s book contains a wealth of information, and it is recommended to everyone who is interested in aviation safety. No bibliography.
122. Tench, William H. Safety is No Accident. London: Collins, 1985. 155 pages. A good treatise on the art of aircraft accident investigation by the one time chief inspector in the British Accidents Investigation Branch. At one time Tench was an airline pilot and adds some interesting insight into British accident investigation. Half-tone photographs. List of abbreviations. Index. Bibliography. This book is organized as follows:
· The Classic Accident
· The Accident Investigators Legal Aspects in the United Kingdom
· The International Civil Aviation Organization
· The Regulating Authorities
· The Airline Operators Flight Recorders
· A Personal Involvement How to Investigate an Accident
· Explosive Decompression
· It Happened Before
· Back to the Caribbean Kidney Transplant Ditching in the North Sea
· Brickbats and Bouquets
The following accidents are covered in some detail:
· Dan Air B-707-321C May 14, 1977 (G-BEBP) Lusaka, Zambia
· BEA Vanguard Oct. 2, 1971 (G-APEC) Aarsele, Belgium