If you're about to take a flight, this is a book you might want to avoid. I admit to feeling some serious trepidation about my upcoming air travel.
In this day and age, airplane travel should be safe. Over the decades of improvement in quality and design of planes, intense training of pilots and crew, and a commitment to inspection and maintenance, we should be able to rely on a plane to take us from one place to another without incident. In light of recent events, yes there are things completely out of control of those in the air or on the ground, but most air accidents occur long before the airplane goes up. Pilots and crew are human, air traffic controllers make mistakes, and important fixes and directives don't get proper attention. The primary mission of the industry still needs to be focused on safety. Often it is not.
This book is mainly about a specific plane crash, the aftermath and effects on the survivors as the few litigants who weren't bought out line up to get justice. The tragedy ultimately is that not enough changes have been made by the airline companies to mitigate the potential for another air disaster.
When United Flight 173 crash landed in a neighborhood in Portland, Oregon, in December of 1978, 10 people were killed. The airline immediately leapt to the conclusion that it was pilot error as Captain Malburn "Buddy" McBroom indeed allowed the plane to run out of fuel. Was it because of defective gauges or was the main reason due to him being distracted by landing gear that he could not determine was locked and down. In any event, the drama surrounding the crash and the resulting legal case for punitive damages brought by one of the survivors kept the crash in the news for years. In a travesty of justice, awarded damages were overturned, lessening the sting for United Airlines and allowing them to sidestep major responsibility for the crash.
If you don't get angry when you read this and if your heart doesn't ache for all of the people on the plane and on the ground that night, then you didn't pay attention. It's the age old case of a huge company putting profits and the easy way out ahead of passenger safety. And the scariest thing is that none of us know, because of lack of transparency, whether or not the airlines are taking safety and maintenance as seriously as they must.
This was an excellent book narrated by Heather Henderson. She did a fantastic job of bringing the characters to life and delivered the story with just the right touch of indignation and empathy. I believe the author is the daughter of one of the lawyers in the case brought against United Airlines on behalf of one of the survivors.
This is a standalone nonfiction title. Not part of a series.
Tags - airplane crash, pilot error, technical details, investigation, legal case
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