Rating: 
Summary: Compelling
Review: A very compelling, and somewhat greusome book listing transcriptions from various Cockpit Voice Recorders (CVR) taken from airplane crashes, and mishaps. If you can stomach it, you'll read it from cover to cover in one sitting. But at the same time, you may wish you had not. As to the presentation, a writer could approach this subject from two ways: Either from a journalist approach - sort of like what you'd read in the paper, describing the mishap, and quoting the CVR to pinpoint highlights. Or to approach it simply as an editor, and publish the actual CVR transcripts verbatim. MacPherson's book is closer to the latter. He issues a set-up, then a script of the CVR transcription, the actual dialog in the cockpit to the end. And sometimes a commentary at the end. In the back of the book is a glossary of terms that helps. The positive of this is that the absolute reality if it really hits home. The negative is that it's so clinical, it's often hard to read as a result, and a lot of readers may have preferred some more analysis or commentary from the author to at least explain the situations better, even if left somewhat to speculation and interpretation, even guesswork, from the author. Readers don't mind this, as long as the author admits the speculation. I do have two other criticisms, I have read some CVR transcripts in the past, and actually heard some actual CVR recordings (search the web), and he makes at least two errors. One on the PSA 182 flight, leaving out three lines of dialog of importance, as another reader noted. He also mis-interprets important dialog in the heroic UAL 232, when Hayes and Fisch coverse at the very end, "left throttle, pull em off", and "I can't pull em off, that's what's turning you". This is the perfect example where an educated editor could have helped describe what was going on when these men were conversing in such a crunch situation. None the less, the book is riveting, and few books are as compelling as this one. But I say that with caution, as this is not an easy book to read, and you will likely feel queasy for some time after reading it.
Rating: 
Summary: Not as good as the idea behind the book
Review: Frankly, I was disappointed. The idea behind the book - to publish the content of the CVR tapes of major aircraft accidents - is a good one. However, this is a specialized topic, and MacPherson simply does not have the specialist knowledge to properly edit the recordings. As a result, there are errors. Some are minor - e.g., the fuel quantity for ValuJet 592 is given as 2.300 pounds for the 1000 kilometer flight from Miami to Atlanta. Others are not - e.g., the crash of Delta 1141, which is generally accepted to have been caused by the crew failing to set the flaps, is attributed to fuel imbalance. As a result, much of the crucial tape sequence of the crew making their final preparations for takeoff is edited out by MacPherson. On the plus side, editing is necessary to make the book accessible to the general reader, and it certainly does that. MacPherson thus succeeds in making the drama - and quite often the heroism - of flight crews suddenly caught in terrifying circumstances accessible for everyone. I rate the book as recommendable for the general reader, but unsatisfactory for aviators.
Rating: 
Summary: Bland and disappointing.
Review: Full disclosure: This reviewer is prejudiced! He hates air travel in general. In particular he dislikes airports, airlines, airplanes, flight personnel, the so called "food" and virtually anything and everything connected with air travel. For good measure, I just had a very unpleasant encounter with a rude flight attendant from a certain airline based in Minneapolis. I was all set for an expose ripping the industry for unsafe practices, sloppy maintenance, money grubbing from Washington and a host of other sins real and imagined. What I received instead was a disappointingly bland report of cockpit recordings from troubled airliners in flight. Many of these flights crashed with great loss of life, others somehow survived their ordeals. In virtually all of the 28 incidents, I was unmoved. Even the transcripts of the Valuejet crash into the Everglades and the Challenger Space tragedy left me unimpressed. (Other reviewers have hinted that some of the latter was "reconstructed"). The one exception was the final episode concerning the heroic efforts of the crew of United 232, which crashed in Sioux City, Iowa with many survivors. As well as being unmoved by the second hand reporting of these events, I agree with the reviewer from Dublin who felt somehow "soiled" by these proceedings. BB reminded me of old movies of cars going off a cliff. Finally, I have to disagree with the author's statement on page X in the introduction: "The airline industry is constantly striving to make air travel safer" This reviewer believes in the precise opposite. The industry, aided and abetted by a cowed FAA, is cutting every maintenance corner it can to save $$. I believe there is a dark side to this business that goes unreported both on the pages of BB-and elsewhere. BB is nonetheless recommended for pilots, airplane buffs and similar folk. "Ordinary" people looking for an exciting saga will doubtless be disappointed.
Rating: 
Summary: The Recordings Skip A Beat
Review: I have never thought of myself as a morbid kind of guy, but for some reason I really enjoy books on airline incidents. I think it is all the very real life or death drama that is part of each of the events. With that being said I have read any number of these type of books over the years and have come to expect a certain amount of detail with each one. I found that my expectations were not met with this book. The format of the book is primarily the actual cockpit voice recordings with a little bit of detail at the start and end of the sequence to set the stage. The author also inserts a few comments here and there to help the reader to determine what is going on.
What I came away with in the book was a feeling that it was just an average attempt. The author did present some interesting and not very well reported on incidents as well as some of the more famous. It was just that he did not put in a lot more effort past the editing. The comments he did make about the crashes or near crashes were somewhat shallow. The book did not promise a full blow investigation on each crash, but I would have liked a bit more then just a three sentence explanation and the death toll. And given that there were so many different aircraft involved I would have liked some consistent basic info on each of the aircraft involved in the reported events. And would I be considered greedy if I would ask for a few photos?
Overall I found the book to be average. The cockpit voice recordings are at times dramatic and the actual events are interesting to read about. It was just that so much more could have been done to make the book a more complete account of these accidents that I finished the book a bit disappointed. IF this is your first book on the topic then it is probably a nice starting point.
Rating: 
Summary: Gripping and chilling
Review: It's simply amazing to read what happens in the cockpit when things go wrong. If you like to watch "Wings" on Discovery, you'll enjoy this book. In fact, many of the accidents in the book have been the subject of such series as "Crisis in the Sky" (the Sioux City incident, most notably). To read the unabridged transcripts is an educational (and emotional) treat. It's almost cliche to say so, but the reactions of the pilots encompass the range of human emotion--from panicked to noble to unbelievably calm. The accidents themselves run the gamut from abrupt and unexpected to shockingly inevitable. While all are disturbing to some degree, the transcript from the Soviet shootdown of Korean Airlines flight 007 is particularly wrenching, and never fails to elicit a tear. "The Black Box" is, in a word, fascinating.
Rating:
Summary: Hmm. Which is Creepier?
Review: The fact that I'd already read all of these CVR transcripts, or that someone has dedicated an entire book to them? Nonetheless, it's an interesting collection for the plane crash (and plane...) obsessed. Which I may or may not be. What? Stop looking at me. You're checking out the book, too...
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't sleep after reading this one
Review: This book contains excerpts of actual recordings taken from the "black boxes" of airplanes which crashed. Black boxes are those voice recorders which monitor the voices of airplane pilots and often contain details which explain how and why a plane crashed. Author Malcolm McPherson has brought to life the last moments of passengers and crew during the worst kinds of emergencies imaginable and I doubt you'll be able to put this one down. In many cases, the recordings have never been shared in their entirety before so this book is a rare chance to get details you might not read about otherwise.
Some of the incidents are famious (such as the 1996 ValuJet crashin the Everglades) and others are less well-known. McPherson does have a few errors in this book, mostly in explaining the terminology of aviation but his basic information is accurate and only the most diehard aviation buffs will mind the errors.
Rating:
Summary: I couldn't sleep after reading this one
Review: This book contains excerpts of actual recordings taken from the "black boxes" of airplanes which crashed. Black boxes are those voice recorders which monitor the voices of airplane pilots and often contain details which explain how and why a plane crashed. Author Malcolm McPherson has brought to life the last moments of passengers and crew during the worst kinds of emergencies imaginable and I doubt you'll be able to put this one down. In many cases, the recordings have never been shared in their entirety before so this book is a rare chance to get details you might not read about otherwise.
Some of the incidents are famious (such as the 1996 ValuJet crashin the Everglades) and others are less well-known. McPherson does have a few errors in this book, mostly in explaining the terminology of aviation but his basic information is accurate and only the most diehard aviation buffs will mind the errors.
Rating:
Summary: I Could Not Put It Down
Review: This book is kind of like an accident on the side of the road. You might not want to look, but you have to. Well, I did look and I ended up reading this book in two days. You cannot put it down. In it are the transcripts of black box recordings from real airline incidents and tragedies. Not all of the transcripts were disasters, but many were. This information is real and difficult sometimes. This is not Hollywood writers spinning something for the big screen. These are fathers and sons, struggling to stay alive and keep their passengers alive. At the end of each transcript are the results and causes of the incidents. You can then analyze how the pilots did. Of course, most of the time, the pilots could have done nothing to resolve the problem (but not always). OK, if you are flying soon, maybe you don't want to read it. However, like the book says, remember, this is still the safest from of travel in the world.
Rating:
Summary: bogus book
Review: this book was disappointing, didn't provide elementary things like a timeline to show how much time elapsed between events; very little original insight in the narrative, just basically packaged the transcripts verbatim and sold it. don't bother!
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