Final Call: Why Airline Disasters Continue to Happen

Examines the causes of airplane crashes, arguing that nearly all are both repetitive and unnecessary, and investigates why they continue to happen

Barlay ( Aircrash Detective ) displays an impressive acquaintance with air travel worldwide, from the planes themselves to the temperaments of pilots. He explains factors that can lead to tragedy in the air: anomalies in the weather, fire or toxic gases in the passenger cabin, lax maintenance of the aircraft, metal fatigue in planes, defective airports where neither facilities nor services are "even up to rubbish standards," linguistic problems arising from violation of the rule that English is the language of the air. What angers Barlay most is the refusal of the industry to learn from previous disasters and near-disasters; for example, there were 22 icing accidents between 1970 and 1982, but nothing was done to solve the problem until an airplane went down in the Potomac with heavy loss of life. The book is excellent, with one exception: the text is awash in acronyms which a more ingenious author might have avoided. Photos.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

In this expose of the dangers of commercial flight, Barlay arrives at a grim and inevitable conclusion: airline disasters tend to repeat themselves. His premise is that there are never any "new" accidents--airlines just do not learn from past experiences with weather, human error, mechanical problems, aging aircraft, icing, sabotage, and other factors. Most airline tragedies are not accidents but rather the result of ignorance, forgetfulness, and indifference. This is an unsettling indictment that blames the airline industry for not making itself safer, that criticizes the crash investigators for failing to enforce safety rules, and that faults the flying public for not demanding better safety standards.
- William A. McIntyre, New Hampshire Technical Coll., L.R.C., Nashua
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.