The Mystery of Flight 427

Author: Bill Adair
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
ISBN: 1588344029
Category : Transportation
Languages : en
Pages : 257

Book Description
The immediate human toll of the 1994 Flight 427 disaster was staggering: all 132 people aboard died on a Pennsylvania hillside. The subsequent investigation was a maze of politics, bizarre theories, and shrouded answers. Bill Adair, an award-winning journalist, was granted special access to the five-year inquiry by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) while its investigators tried to determine if the world's most widely used commercial jet, the Boeing 737, was really safe. Their findings have had wide-ranging effects on the airline industry, pilots, and even passangers. Adair takes readers behind the scenes to show who makes decisions about airline safety—and why.

The Plane Truth

Author: Roger W. Cobb
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 9780815771975
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Book Description
Flying is an extremely safe way to travel. Fewer than 14,000 individuals perished in U.S. airline disasters during the twentieth century. In contrast, nearly three times as many people lose their lives in automobile accidents every year. Yet plane crashes have a tremendous impact on public perceptions of air safety in the United States. When a crash occurs domestically, media coverage is immediate and continuous. Government teams rush to investigate, elected officials offer condolences and promise to find the cause, and airlines and plane manufacturers seek to avoid responsibility. Regulations are frequently proposed in response to a particular incident, but meaningful change often does not occur. In The Plane Truth, Roger Cobb and David Primo examine the impact of high-visibility plane crashes on airline transportation policy. Regulation is disjointed and reactive, in part due to extensive media coverage of airline disasters. The authors describe the typical responses of various players—elected officials, investigative agencies, airlines, and the media. While all agree that safety is the primary concern in air travel, failure to agree on a definition of safety leads to policy conflicts. Looking at all airline crashes in the 1990s, the authors examine how particular features of an accident correspond to the level of media attention it receives, as well as how airline disasters affect subsequent actions by the National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Aviation Administration, and others. Three accidents are considered in detail: USAir flight 427 (September 1994), ValuJet flight 592 (May 1996), and TWA flight 800 (July 1996). The authors also discuss how the September 11 terrorist attacks turned attention away from safety and toward security. Cobb and Primo make several policy recommendations based on their findings. These include calling on lawmakers and regulators to avoid reactive regulation and instead to focus on systematic problems in a

Flight 427

Author: Gerry Byrne
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9780387952567
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 324

Book Description
This study of the Boeing 737 airliner focuses on US Airways Flight 427, which crashed in March 1994, near Pittsburgh, killing all 132 aboard. The author relates how that crash kicked off years of painstaking research by the NTSB, the FAA, and Boeing that finally uncovered a minor, yet lethal flaw that had been designed into the aircraft.

AIR CRASH INVESTIGATIONS: LOST...The Crash of American Airlines Flight 965

Author: George Cramoisi, editor
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1105639266
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 154

Book Description
On December 20, 1995, American Airlines Flight 965, a Boeing 757-223, was on a scheduled passenger flight from Miami, Florida, U.S.A., to Cali, Colombia. Close to its final destination the pilots erroneously cleared the approach waypoints from their navigation computer. When the controller asked the pilots to check back in over Tulua, north of Cali, it was no longer programmed into the computer. They were lost and the aircraft crashed into a mountain. Of the 163 people on board, 4 passengers survived miraculously the accident.

AIR CRASH INVESTIGATIONS: DEADLY MISTAKES The Crash of Air China Flight 129

Author: George Cramoisi, editor
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1105705846
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Book Description
On April 15, 2002, Air China flight 129, a Boeing 767-200ER, operated by Air China, en route from Beijing, China to Busan, Korea, crashed on Mt. Dotdae, near Gimhae Airport, Busan. Of the 166 persons on board, 37 persons survived the crash, while 129 occupants were killed. The Korean Aviation Accident Investigation Board (KAAIB) determined that the probable cause of the crash was pilot error due to poor crew resource management and lost situational awareness during the circling approach of the runway. The Chinese investigation team pointed out that the Korean ATC was not fully licensed and mistakenly directed the airliner to descend to a wrong altitude and that the airport did not inform the crew of the weather conditions at the time. A contributing factor was that the airline made all announcements in Chinese and English, while most passengers were Korean.

AIR CRASH INVESTIGATIONS, INFERNO IN AMSTERDAM The Crash of El Al Flight 1862

Author: George Cramoisi, editor
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1105606228
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 153

Book Description
On 4 October 1992, El Al Israel Airlines Flight 1862, a Boeing 747-200 Freighter, departed from Schiphol Airport, Amsterdam, on its way to Tel Aviv, Israel. Seven minutes after take-off the plane lost engine no. 3 and 4 and crashed in an apartment block just outside Amsterdam, killing 43 people. The investigation concluded that the design and certification of the B 747 pylon was inadequate to provide the required level of safety. Furthermore the system to ensure structural integrity by inspection failed.

AIR CRASH INVESTIGATIONS, CAPTAIN LOST CONTROL The Crash of Kenya Airways Flight 507

Author: Hank Williamson, editor
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1105940888
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 149

Book Description
During the night of 04th May 2007, the B737-800, registration 5Y-KYA, operated by Kenya Airways as flight KQA 507 from Abidjan international airport (C te d'Ivoire), to the Jomo Kenyatta airport Nairobi (Kenya), made a scheduled stop-over at the Douala international airport (Cameroon). The weather was stormy. A number of departing planes decided to wait for the weather to improve. Kenya Airways, however, decided to depart. Shortly after take-off at about 1000 ft, the aircraft entered into a slow right roll that increased continuously and eventually ended up in a spiral dive. On the 5th May 2007 at approximately 0008 hrs, the airplane crashed in a mangrove swamp South-South/East of Douala. All 114 people on board were killed and the airplane was completely destroyed. The airplane crashed after loss of control by the crew as a result of spatial disorientation, after a long slow roll, during which no instrument scanning was done, and in the absence of external visual references in a dark night.

Mayday Over Wichita

Author: D. W. Carter
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
ISBN: 1625845081
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 191

Book Description
The little-known story of a major catastrophe in a 1960s African American community: A “commendable, if unsettling, account.” —Richard Kluger, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Simple Justice On the cold Saturday morning of January 16, 1965, a U.S. Air Force KC-135 tanker carrying thirty-one thousand gallons of jet fuel crashed into a congested African American neighborhood in Wichita, Kansas. When the fire and destruction finally subsided, forty-seven people—mostly African American children—were dead or injured, homes were completely destroyed and numerous families were splintered. As shocking as it may sound, the event was seemingly omitted from the historical record for nearly fifty years. Now, historian D. W. Carter examines the myths and realities of the crash while providing new insights about the horrific four-minute flight that forever changed the history of Kansas. Includes photographs

AIR CRASH INVESTIGATIONS FATIGUE? The Crash of Federal Express Flight 1478

Author: Hank Williamson, Editor
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1300275308
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 193

Book Description
On July 26, 2002, about 0537 eastern daylight time, Federal Express flight 1478, a Boeing 727-232F, on its way from Memphis International Airport to Tallahassee Regional airport, struck trees on short final approach and crashed short of runway 9 at the Tallahassee Regional Airport, Florida. The flight was operating as a scheduled cargo flight from Memphis, to Tallahassee. The captain, first officer, and flight engineer were seriously injured, and the airplane was destroyed by impact and resulting fire. Night visual meteorological conditions prevailed for the flight, which operated on an instrument flight rules flight plan. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of the accident was the crew's failure to establish and maintain a proper glidepath during the night visual approach to landing. Contributing to the accident was a combination of the captain's and first officer's fatigue, the crew's failure to monitor the approach, and the first officer's color vision deficiency.

AIR CRASH INVESTIGATIONS GHOSTS? The Crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401

Author: Pete Collins, Editor
Publisher: Lulu.com
ISBN: 1300363282
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 98

Book Description
On December 29, 1972 an Eastern Air Lines' Lockheed L-1011, as Flight 401 on its way from John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York, to Miami International Airport, Miami, Florida, crashed at 2342 eastern standard time in the Everglades, approximately 18 miles west northwest of Miami International Airport. The aircraft was destroyed. There were 163 passengers and a crew of 13 aboard the aircraft, 99 people died in the crash. The flight was diverted because of problems with the nose landing gear The aircraft climbed to 2,000 feet while the crew attempted to correct the problem. Surviving passengers and crewmembers stated that the flight was routine and operated normally before impact with the ground. The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident, was preoccupation with a malfunction of the nose landing gear position indicating system distracted the crew's attention from the instruments and allowed the descent to go unnoticed.