Ebook: Brace for impact: air crashes and aviation safety

Introduction -- Flying Too Close to the Sun -- Knights of the Air and the Great War -- Barnstormers, Flaming Coffins, and Death Mockers -- Lindbergh, Leo the Lion, and Air Mail Aces -- Celebrity Deaths and the Rise of Commercial Passenger Flight -- Lancasters, LORAN, and the Second World War -- Make Way for Tomorrow: The Comet Crashes -- A False Start for the Black Box -- Kicking Tin and Coping with Disaster -- No Longer Deaf and Mute: FDRs and CVRs Become Law -- Douglas Death Cruisers and Mourning Becomes Electra -- Terror in Tenerife, Pilot Error, and Air Traffic Chaos -- Deregulation and Fighting Fire with Decrees -- Aviation's Annus Horribilis -- Regional Air Tragedy: The Kegworth and Dryden Perfect Storms -- Watchdogs of Air Travel and Accidents -- Nationair and ValuJet: Folly upon Folly -- Swissair One-Eleven Heavy -- Complex Systems Failing in Complex Ways.;"How safe are airplanes? Does seat preference make a life-or-death difference? What makes airplanes crash? Peter Pigott answers these questions and more as he examines the long history of airplane accidents. Discover what the biggest crashes in history were, why things went wrong, and how safe you really are when you book your next flight."--