Terror in the Skies: The Inside Story of the World's Worst Air Crashes

Rating:
Summary: Mediocre
Review: This book is deservedly out of print.
The material in this book has appeared elsewhere; it's pretty much a rote recitation of the minute-by-minute events of the featured "worst air crashes," with helpful cockpit voice transcripts, and some analysis of what went wrong.
The book would have somewhat benefited from an index; the lack of bibliography is interesting. Did the author want us to believe he gathered all this material first-hand?
The author (a military pilot in the 1940's and current private pilot) doesn't explain why, on the last page, he talks about the "infinitesimal number of fatalities considering the vast number of passengers," yet in the dedication of the book to his wife, he reveals that on family trips around the world, he and his wife _never_ (his emphasis) flew on the same plane until their son reached 21. If (as they are) the chances of a crash are "infinitesimal," why did his family go to such outrageous steps on the assumption there was a decent chance one of their planes would crash?

Rating:
Summary: Mediocre
Review: This book is deservedly out of print.
The material in this book has appeared elsewhere; it's pretty much a rote recitation of the minute-by-minute events of the featured "worst air crashes," with helpful cockpit voice transcripts, and some analysis of what went wrong.
The book would have somewhat benefited from an index; the lack of bibliography is interesting. Did the author want us to believe he gathered all this material first-hand?
The author (a military pilot in the 1940's and current private pilot) doesn't explain why, on the last page, he talks about the "infinitesimal number of fatalities considering the vast number of passengers," yet in the dedication of the book to his wife, he reveals that on family trips around the world, he and his wife _never_ (his emphasis) flew on the same plane until their son reached 21. If (as they are) the chances of a crash are "infinitesimal," why did his family go to such outrageous steps on the assumption there was a decent chance one of their planes would crash?