Black Box: Why Air Safety Is No Accident

I must be a rubber-necker to the highest degree because I always enjoy these type of books. It has the standard fair, nothing really new on the format. The author does give us a good amount of detail, which she is known for. I would always like more photos, but there is enough to tell the story. If you like this type of book then you will enjoy this one.

Nicholas Faith has written other books about disasters, notably "Mayday: The Perils of the Waves" about shipwrecks. Both of these books are the companions to a BBC television series and that might be why some of the text seems to be a little sensationalist. Then again, it's hard *not* to be dramatic about horrific events like commercial airplane crashes. Still, that's a tiny criticism of what is an otherwise well-researched and well-written book. Faith does approach his topic anecdotally (that is, using specific crashes to explain the many causes of airline accidents), but in this way he covers every conceivable cause of commercial crashes *and* keeps the reader interested by offering concrete examples.I would say the title is quite accurate, because Faith's primary sources of information throughout the book are the air accident investigators themselves--both current and former members of the British Air Accidents Investigations Branch and the American National Transportation Safety Board. The inclusion throughout the book of descriptions and explanations of crashes in the words of investigators themselves, is what makes this book so valuable as a source. Another reason it's valuable is that there are really no other books like it on the market today. I would recommend this book for everyone from the casual reader to the student writing a report.