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Summary: Air Disaster 3
Review: Air Disaster 3 lives up to the high standard of Air Disaster Volumes 1 & 2. It takes an in depth look at several major air disasters, and includes information from before the incident, then describes what happened and then explains why. Has great graphics and photos. The best Aviation Safety related book I have ever read.
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Summary: Another Excellent Job by Job
Review: For anyone interested in airline accidents, this series is a must. Volumes 1 & 2 were outstanding, and V-3 is even better. Each event is spelled out in intricate detail, and you finish each chapter with a wealth of knowledge about the accident, the aircraft, the investigation, and the aftermath. Each accident is so detailed, it almost borders on too much without overdoing it. You come away knowing much more than you ever thought you would, and therefore have that much more insight. Highly Recommended! When does Volume 4 come out?
Rating:
Summary: Another Excellent Job by Job
Review: For anyone interested in airline accidents, this series is a must. Volumes 1 & 2 were outstanding, and V-3 is even better. Each event is spelled out in intricate detail, and you finish each chapter with a wealth of knowledge about the accident, the aircraft, the investigation, and the aftermath. Each accident is so detailed, it almost borders on too much without overdoing it. You come away knowing much more than you ever thought you would, and therefore have that much more insight. Highly Recommended! When does Volume 4 come out?
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Summary: Another Great Collection Of Accidents From Mac Job
Review: I just recently bought and read Air Diaster Volume 3 by Macathur Job. I have already read volumes 1 and 2 and volume 3 is just as good. He has chossen a great selection of accidents to write about this time. And as in the 2 previous volumes Matt Tesch added some great artwork to add to the effect. I think this is a great book and I cannot wait for Volume 4 to come out.
Rating: 
Summary: Slightly disappointing
Review: I'm a huge fan of Mac and Matthew's work...Volumes One and Two were brilliant. My problem with Volume Three is that there seems to be less original text and more reliance on the official accident investigation reports. Still worth the purchase, however, and I eagerly await Volume Four
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Summary: Understanding 3
Review: Macarther Job's third installment in this Air Disaster series brings us into the more modern era of the lesser known disasters as air travel is now so mundane that every time an airliner crashs the world gasps for a brief moment and then carries on with life.Pilot error is a main focus of this edition. Good clear diagrams and explinations are provided and this has made Macarther Job one of the foremost experts in this seldom talked about field in aviation. His next edition is the preserve of the post war piston airliners and early turboprops, however as we know and have to sadly except this will not be his last.
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Summary: The best source of aviation accident information - ever
Review: MacArthur Job's books continue as the standard by which all books on industrial accidents ought to be measured. A non-nonsense but readible prose style, an unnerving focus on the significant elements of the accidents, and the superb drawings of Matthew Tesch provide all the information in an understandable, accurate, and chilling narrative of disastrous events. It's all too easy to imagine being in the cockpit in the last few minutes of a plane's -- and often pilots' existence. This series is unlike any other in the field or any similar field. I've been to some of the accidents described by Mr. Job and can attest to his precise accounting of the facts. If only Government agencies could write descriptions like this.
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Summary: Compelling and Detailed
Review: Once again, Macarthur Job delves into the world that houses our darkest fears. Written in striking detail thanks to the increased parameters and quality of CVR/FDR recordings, Job takes the stuff of nightmare and soothes the reader, with the knowledge that the answer is always found at the end.
Written above the average reading level, Job does draw on his substantial experience and knowledge of the working of planes. However, even the average traveler will be reassured by the competence, while sometimes surprised by the choices, of the flight crews in this book.
I would like to see Job take on some of the more messy cases of the present days - this series is a very even-handed review of accidents with no speculation or questioning conclusions. I look forward, as always, to the next installment!
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Summary: A lot of work went into this...
Review: Sometimes, it is uncanny when the pilots say something in the cockpit that is later retrieved by the voice-recorder, it is as if they knew something was going to happen. Like the United Airlines pilot that commented: "Nice looking day - hard to believe the skies are unfriendly." The most interesting one I found was where the Thai Airways A310 crashed into the Himalayas in Nepal. How could a plane crash into a mountain? Communication errors, mainly. But you'll have to read it to find out. Another unusual one, was when the pilot's children came to the cockpit of a Russian Aeroflot plane and the son then "flew" the aircraft under his father's supervision, leading to the rather drastic consequences of everyone aboard perishing. It was not as you might think, the son's fault, rather, the autopilot disconnected without them becoming aware of it and the fact that the captains control-yoke overrides the second officer's. After reading the first three books, my respect for pilots has increased tenfold. Most of them do what they think is the correct action (at the time) for averting a disaster. It is all too easy to say with the benefit of hindsight that they should have done this or they should have done that. It has also made me aware, that it is often pilot error that causes incidents. Rarely does a "wing fall off" like I used to think happened. Oh, and bring back the Flight Engineer - had they been present on flight decks during some of the more recent incidents of this book, they probably could have prevented or averted those disasters. I would like to see the authors make a 5th instalment, focusing on more recent disasters, and ones in which the circumstances are caused by something other than turbulence or the autopilot being in the wrong mode. Such as the collision caused in Lima, Peru on October 2nd, 1997 -where a pilot radioed that his cockpit instrumentation was malfunctioning. Turned out workers forgot to remove the duct tape that they had placed over key sensors while cleaning the plane. In this edition, too many of the crashes are similar, and it is like reading the same story twice.
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Summary: A little more indulgent "own horn-blowing"...
Review: The artist has to confess to being really gratified at the reviews of Volume 3 expressed on this page (it's late 2004 as I type this, so I can't be accused of being some kind of "feedback junkie"!).
In many respects, this 3rd volume of the series was the most demanding to prepare, if for no other reason than the technological advances on flight decks and in aircraft and systems (in these more recent accidents) required both Mac and I to "get our heads around" more than "mere" airmanship matters.
To try to take some of the sting out of this techno-evolution, more effort than previously went into both the readability of the text, and the visual context of the illustrations and their captions and sideboxes.
It was a unique coup to obtain the original Russian investigation report into the Aeroflot A310 loss over Siberia; it was an unbelievable effort to translate it, cross-check it, and work from it ~ as has been Mac's forte ~ as the basis for this chapter.
And, just as with the Erebus chapter in the previous volume, great energy was invested in trying to tell the Aeroflot A310 story in a proper context of the former USSR's aeronautical environment. On a personal note, I have to say that my interpretation of the translated report's sequence of events, and my subsequent graphic rendition of it over two double-page spreads, was the most demanding effort of the whole series.
We're delighted to note that our work is still finding such an enthusiastic audience.
Matthew Tesch
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