| The Crash Detectives A new book by Christine Negroni From the car seat to the wheelchair,
we spend our lives in transit. When we get to the end of the road is the great
mystery of life. But for many, moving from one place to another will provide
the how, because after heart, cancer and lung diseases, transportation
accidents are the biggest killer. In The Crash Detectives, a plane crashes, a ship sinks, a hot air
balloon erupts into flames. The crash detectives arrive. They search and probe,
asking the questions that explore the design, engineering and operations
decisions that unleashed the fatal events. No accident has just one cause
though. Every catastrophe lies at the end of an unbroken chain of events. So the crash detectives dig in, learning what they can to
make transportation more survivable and everyone who travels by land, sea or
air, who drives to work or bikes to school is a beneficiary. If the cloud of calamity has a
silver lining, this is it. |
 |
| " Meticulously researched - an absolutely riveting book. You can't help but want to read it with your seatbelt fastened." Jeff Zaslow co-author with Chesley Sullenberger of Highest Duty |
|
| "Provocative and written in clear and compelling style, anyone who travels, and that means everyone, should read The Crash Detectives."
Doug Frantz author of Death on the Black Sea |
|
| "Harrowing, incisive and smartly written." Patrick Smith author of Ask the Pilot |
Chapter One The Happy Death
“Hypoxia is the greatest single threat to any one who flies.” Richard M. Harding and F. John Mills British Medical Journal April 30, 1983
“In case you’re wondering, I think he’s dead.”
It was 9:39 in the morning, eleven and a half minutes after the Jacksonville air traffic controller heard the pilot confirm her clearance to ascend. Russell Sloan had been trying to get the Learjet on the radio, but he got no answer. He assumed the silence on her end was bad news.
The other controllers around Sloan grew silent. They kept monitoring the airplanes assigned to them, but their chatter was replaced with an exchange of knowing looks. Pilots climbing to their assigned altitude just don’t stop communicating. Sloan had probably called it right.