The Crash Detectives: Investigating the World's Most Mysterious Air Disasters

4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars | 643 ratings

Price: 13.78

Last update: 10-31-2024


About this item

New York Times Best Seller

“Negroni is a talented aviation journalist who clearly understands the critically important part the human factor plays in aviation safety.” (Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, pilot of US Airways 1549, the Miracle on the Hudson)

A fascinating exploration of how humans and machines fail - leading to air disasters from Amelia Earhart to MH370 - and how the lessons learned from these accidents have made flying safer.

In The Crash Detectives, veteran aviation journalist and air safety investigator Christine Negroni takes us inside crash investigations from the early days of the jet age to the present, including the search for answers about what happened to the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. As Negroni dissects what happened and why, she explores their common themes and, most important, what has been learned from them to make planes safer. Indeed, as Negroni shows, virtually every aspect of modern pilot training, airline operation, and airplane design has been shaped by lessons learned from disaster. Along the way, she also details some miraculous saves, when quick-thinking pilots averted catastrophe and kept hundreds of people alive.

Tying in aviation science, performance psychology, and extensive interviews with pilots, engineers, human factors specialists, crash survivors, and others involved in accidents all over the world, The Crash Detectives is an alternately terrifying and inspiring book that might just cure your fear of flying, and will definitely make you a more informed passenger.

“Christine Negroni combines her investigative reporting skills with an understanding of the complexities of air accident investigations to bring to life some of history’s most intriguing and heartbreaking cases.” (Bob Woodruff, ABC News)


Top reviews from the United States

Tiffany Hawk
5.0 out of 5 stars Smart, thorough, and highly entertaining
Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2017
I spent five years as a flight attendant, and my husband is a former military pilot who recently turned commercial, and I found this book utterly fascinating and oftentimes funny. Despite the accessible and enjoyable writing style, it took forever to get through because we ended up discussing just about every paragraph. We were familiar with many, but not all, of the disasters covered, but interestingly, those I knew about were just as compelling as those I didn’t. Quite a testament to the author’s skill and the value of this book for both insider and layperson. Anyone who has ever asked if airplanes really do just "fly themselves" will appreciate this in-depth and nuanced response. I don’t know if this read will make travelers feel more or less safe inflight – I felt both – but I can promise they’ll never look at pilots or air travel the same.
PeeWee Moondog
4.0 out of 5 stars Whipsmart/cool-whipped
Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2020
Good chewin' reading but there's a leetle problem. Very well-researched data leads to unknown discoveries but the picnic of knowledge is dished up with invitation to cliffhanging! The publishing world continues its vaudeville mesmerizing act reshuffling the deck of datapoints and not playing the full hand until chapter's end, even later. The author intrudes to encourage your attention to keep a grip but why? Why must a story sandwich be diced and sliced and toothpicked like canapes? The last chapter Cuisinarts five stories into bits n pieces blended together because the author has an extracted theme that takes precedence. Her thinking deeper than just spooling out reportage is welcome. Sets the book above a bland average. But it's dizzying. We got a very small serving of the Gimli glider story and the Sully Sullenberger Miracle On The Hudson story. But elsewhere we learn fascinating facts such as if the pilot passes control of the aircraft to the first officer, and leaves the flight deck, procedures require the co-pilot to first put on an oxygen face mask in the event of a decompression event -- and pilots don't! Accounting for anomalous tragedy at times. So you learn the inside story but are told "Wait for it!" Like a dog who has to balance his biscuit on his nose on command.
Emilio Corsetti III
5.0 out of 5 stars What happened to Malaysia 370?
Reviewed in the United States on July 25, 2018
From the title “Crash Detectives,” one would assume that this book is a behind the scenes look at the work crash investigators undertake when trying to determine the cause of aircraft accidents. The book looks at many aircraft accidents, but the focus isn’t so much on the investigation process. Author Christine Negroni’s goal, as I see it, is to defend her opinion that the disappearance of Malaysia 370 was more likely a result of a mechanical failure as opposed to pilot suicide. In that effort, the author provides numerous cases of other accidents that might shed light on her theory regarding MH 370 of crew incapacitation due to loss of cabin pressure.

All the accidents covered in the book, and there are many, are in some way tangentially connected to the disappearance of Malaysia 370. The book begins with another aircraft mystery: the disappearance of a Pan Am Clipper flying boat in 1938. From there, author Negroni looks at dozens of accidents involving various scenarios that might also be related to Malaysia 370: accidents involving fire, loss of pressurization, alleged pilot suicide, mechanical failure, system failures, engineering failures, power loss, and many more. None of the accidents are looked at in depth, but the combined effect is to demonstrate that accidents occur due to many different factors and the first impression is not always the right one.

I’ll state upfront that I happen to agree with the author’s belief in mechanical failure rather than pilot suicide in the case of MH 370. I have followed the search for the aircraft and the many expert opinions as to what might have happened. But I have not delved deeply into the investigation. I did not know, for example, that the first officer was new to the plane with less than forty hours of flight time on the Boeing 777. That is a significant detail. Here’s why. I have over 30,000 of flight time. I am type rated in five different aircraft. But even with all that experience, when I get checked out in a new aircraft the first 100 hours or so can be stressful. That’s because I don’t have the familiarity with the aircraft to feel comfortable. If something were to happen in that first 100 hours, I am much more likely to make mistakes in handling the problem despite my experience. That’s why airlines have rules in place where you never place a new captain and a new first officer on a flight. At least one pilot needs to have 100 hours or more. The captain of Malaysia 370 was an experienced 777 pilot. But if the captain were to leave the cockpit to use the restroom, and something were to happen while he was out, such as a rapid depressurization, the scenario Christine puts forth seems plausible.

There were other details about the Malaysia 370 mystery that I was unaware of. I did not know that mechanics had serviced the cockpit oxygen bottles prior to the flight. Christine describes a scenario where there is a rapid depressurization for unknown reasons while the captain is out of the cockpit, and the first officer correctly dons his oxygen mask but, due to a mistake by the mechanics, the supply valve was left partially closed preventing the first officer from getting much needed oxygen. An inexperienced pilot, faced with a demanding emergency, hampered by confusing warnings and possible hypoxia, explains a lot about what could have happened.

As a professional pilot, I tend to shy away from aviation books. I spend enough time on planes to not want to also read about them. But Christine’s book kept me interested throughout. My only complaint, and this is on the publisher and not the author, has to do with images. There is no excuse why the images could not have been placed in context as opposed to appearing at the end of the book. It’s an eBook. It might take a few extra steps in the conversion process, but images in context add to the reading experience.
Lesterbeat
3.0 out of 5 stars Well-written and researched.
Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2016
Really more like 3.5 stars. This was a fun read and very informative. It maybe just me, but I feel like the narrative lost steam about halfway through. It's possible that I am just more interested in the stories and information in the first half, but I felt like I was just trying to get through the book in the last half.
Jennifer Niswender
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read
Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2020
This is an obviously well-researched book. I was familiar with most of the accidents and incidents that were presented, but the author did a fantastic job overall in the depth of research she provided. She skips so,e of the more well known details, and gets right to the heart of each incident. The author also did a great job separating what is fact (so much as it can be determined at times), and what is opinion- either hers or the numerous experts she consulted.

The one criticism I have is that it was at times difficult to follow the narrative as it skipped from one situation to another. Some of the jumps took a couple re-reads of paragraphs or sections to follow. I imagine someone less familiar with the numerous accidents presented would have an even more difficult time.
Wizard of WID
4.0 out of 5 stars Lots of Aircraft Wisdom
Reviewed in the United States on February 8, 2024
This book ananyses many aircraft accidents, and takes care to separate intentional suicide-by-pilot from design & maintenance issues. Shows what has been learnt over the years, and how that has improved air safety.

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