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    Seconds To Disaster. Europe Edition
    Seconds To Disaster. Europe Edition
    Seconds To Disaster. Europe Edition
    Ebook158 pages1 hour

    Seconds To Disaster. Europe Edition

    By Ray Ronan

    3.5/5

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    About this ebook

    As with the Air France Flight 447 tragedy, much of the time air crashes are a confluence of events; a cascade of bad luck, bad decisions, inappropriate airline company policy, the failure of aviation regulators, and sometimes insufficient training, or various combinations of all five.

    But why?
    Seconds to Disaster will demonstrate that part of that bad luck is often aided by the airline industry’s own endless and aggressive pursuit of bottom-line profit. It contributes to a creeping erosion of safety standards and puts both passenger and crew lives at serious risk.
    Seconds to Disaster will not only pose and answer questions as to why accidents happen, but also offer solutions as to how they can be further prevented.
    And it will explore a highly contentious issue: what parts do both the airline industry and the worldwide watchdog authorities responsible for governing that industry contribute in playing dice with passenger lives, through negligence and collusion.

    Glenn Meade is a bestselling author with over 12 million books sold. He has worked as a specialist in the field of pilot training--having had a life-long interest in aviation--and has also been a journalist for the Irish Times and the Independent.
    Ray Ronan, a Captain on the A320 series, now flying the A330, is a novelist and non-fiction writer.

    Information is power, be informed, scroll up and get a copy of Seconds To Disaster now.

    "Everyone Who Flies, Or Loves Someone Who Flies Should Read This"
    Captain 'Sully' Sullenberger, Miracle On The Hudson

    'Meade's research is so extensive yet unobtrusive...'
    THE WASHINGTON POST

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRay Ronan
    Release dateJul 16, 2012
    ISBN9781476467450
    Seconds To Disaster. Europe Edition
    Author

    Ray Ronan

    'Ray Ronan, a new name in Thrillers.' -Glenn Meade, Best Selling author of Snow Wolf, Brandenburg and many more.Hitchcock said the trick to suspense was not just about placing a ticking bomb under a table, the suspense came by not ever letting the bomb go off. I hope I’ve managed to follow his advice!Writing and reading is an adventure best shared and that’s with you dear reader. Some writers put out a book in 3 months. I don’t, neither does my co-author Glenn Meade. Like him, I take a year or more. I love to melt fact and fiction, history and present. That takes time and research, which I enjoy. Follow my books across a city, or through a house like the enigmatic Whitemarsh Hall.My books may not be mainstream, but I’m not either. I want to reach out to readers who enjoy the same places and bomb ticking situations I do.That said, there are over 2 million publications on Amazon and obscurity is the enemy of creativity. AND.. Reviews good or bad mean I’m not alone in this mad pursuit of stories and helps spawn future books. I do have 2 more paranormal thrillers ready to roll but GIVE ME A PUSH, LET ME KNOW YOU WANT THEM and I’ll get the others out there online for you. Repeat, sign up! Join me on my quest for readers I can work with, who’ll suggest crazy ideas and keep me up at night...Life has given me a deep well from which to hydrate my writing. Come with me, read on and see where it takes us...Ray

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    Reviews for Seconds To Disaster. Europe Edition

    3.5/5

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    • 4/5
      A few years ago, my husband and I were on a flight from Los Angeles to San Francisco. As usual, the preflight announcement stated that in case of an emergency, the crew was trained to help. Soon after we were told we could unfasten our seatbelts, the flight attendants began rolling the cart in the aisle to serve beverages. Just then we hit a 300-foot air pocket. Things went flying; people who had unfastened their seatbelts hit their heads on the overhead storage compartments. The flight attendants also went flying, one of them breaking her arm and the back of a seat on the way down. The other one was also out-of-commission. Luckily, some of the passengers knew enough first aid to help stabilize the casualties. (We discovered the first aid kit had children’s scissors and lack of other supplies to needed for this particular emergency) Air control moved everything out of our way and brought in ambulances so we could land and get professional help quickly.While traveling by air is a very common occurrence, and more people die in automobile accidents than in airplane crashes, SECONDS TO DISASTER catalogues the reasons that most airline crashes occur.The usual reason given by the airlines is pilot error. That is true sometimes, but often the pilots are the scapegoats because the airline doesn’t want to admit any causes for which they may be held accountable. As airlines try to increase their incomes by lowering fares, squeezing in more passengers, paying lower salaries which translates into younger, less experienced captains, , and using less qualified contractors in Asia or South America to build and maintain their planes, the risks to passengers, crews, and people on the ground increase. Counterfeit parts have been found on a large percentage of airplanes, including Air Force One. Trying to keep on schedule to keep expenses lower sometimes involves taking a risk, such as flying in inclement weather or allowing the captain to divert to another airport. Airlines sometimes take risks by by not allowing the captain to make changes in the flight plan. Whistleblowers have been fired. The book discusses these areas and provides tips on how to survive a plane crash. Some of the primary reasons for crashes are extending the hours that crew members must work, including travel time, the use of automatic and computer-driven operation without thoroughly instructing the crew what to do if the system doesn’t work, and improper maintenance. It focuses on several crashes and details what went wrong in each case. SECONDS TO DISASTER points out that unless children are seated in approved car seats, like found in automobiles, they are more at risk than are adults. When the airline has the child ride in someone’s lap, that child serves as an airbag for the adult. Amazingly, some airlines will not permit passengers to bring on a safe car seat for the child’s use even though they are available.The authors list several tips for consumers to watch for to help ensure safe flying. They include knowing which airlines to avoid, sitting within five rows of an exit, knowing how big the exit door is (the ones in the front and rear are larger and easier to exit), being prepared to quickly release the seat belt (pull, don’t push), and don’t try to take anything out with you such as packages in the overhead compartments. Unfortunately, the pilot’s mental state is not one of them and it’s nearly impossible to know if the pilot has mental issues which may lead to suicide by plane.Chapter 1 was the worst chapter of the book It stated at least seven times that the plane was headed for disaster. The remainder of the book had a better presentation but people who are afraid of flying shouldn’t read it. For everyone else, it details the many pressures that airplane crews face which affect passengers in a somewhat simplified manner.This book was a free Amazon download.

    Book preview

    Seconds To Disaster. Europe Edition - Ray Ronan

    SECONDS TO DISASTER

    By Glenn Meade

    And

    Ray Ronan

    ****

    Published by:

    Glenn Meade And Ray Ronan at Smashwords

    Copyright (c) 2012 by Glenn Meade And Ray Ronan

    ****

    All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

    Smashwords Edition Licence Notes

    This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy.

    ****

    Contents

    Chapter 1: LOST

    Air France Flight 447

    Chapter 2: IN SEARCH OF ANSWERS

    Why air accidents happen

    Chapter 3: THE PILOTS STATE OF MIND

    When things go wrong in the cockpit

    Chapter 4: FLIGHT DECKS, DRUGS AND AUDIOTAPE

    Pilots with a death wish

    Chapter 5: THE RIGHT STUFF

    What makes a safe pilot?

    Chapter 6: SECRETS THE PUBLIC SHOULD KNOW

    When passengers and pilots pay for their seats on an aircraft

    Chapter 7: LETHAL AIRLINES

    When it’s safer not to fly

    Chapter 8: IMPROPER MAINTENANCE

    When good enough just isn’t good enough

    Chapter 9: CHILDREN AND AIRLINE SAFETY

    Aviation’s second class safety for children

    Chapter 10: THE ELEPHANT NOBODY WANTS TO TALK ABOUT

    Toxic Cabin

    Chapter 11: BOEING’S PROBLEMS

    Broken trust

    Chapter 12: THE CRITICAL ELEVEN MINUTES

    3 minutes after take-off, 8 minutes before landing

    Chapter 13: THE AFTERMATH OF THE COLGAN AIR CRASH

    Fatigue doesn’t show up in autopsies

    Chapter 14: HOW TECHNOLOGY IS CHANGING AVIATION

    A marriage for better or for worse

    Chapter 15: AIR FRANCE 447

    The aftermath of a tragedy

    Chapter 16: THE FUTURE OF FLYING

    What can be done to make things better?

    Chapter 17: TOP TIPS FOR FLYING SAFE

    What you can do before and after you buy a ticketto make your flight a safer one

    Foreword by Tim Van Beveren

    Author Biography and Other Works

    Additional Chapters:

    Safer Flying for Children

    Useful links

    References

    Chapter 1

    LOST

    Air France Flight 447

    It was no night for dying.

    In Rio De Janeiro that late May the temperature hung close to eighteen degrees. It was approaching midwinter in Brazil but that night the air was balmy, not a breath of wind whispered in the humid air. On Copacabana Beach, the sea glassy calm, promenades thronged with families and lovers enjoying a stroll, groups of tanned teenage boys and girls lazing in the sand, laughing and playing music.

    On the Avenue Del Flores, the Volkswagen bus carrying the twelve Air France crew led by Captain Marc Dubois set out from the Hilton Hotel at seven-thirty p.m. The crew bus stop-started in the heavy rush-hour traffic. As usual, pick-up was two and a half hours before the flight’s scheduled take-off to allow ample room for road delays. The bus driver on duty that evening always tried to be on time and waited duly outside the hotel entrance for his crew.

    ‘It was such a pleasant night,’ Oscar Hernandez, a member of the hotel staff remembered. ‘The crew was in good spirits. They could certainly have had no intuition that a terrible disaster was about to unfold. That they were being driven to their unspeakable deaths.’

    Among the crew bus passengers, thirty-two year old Air France co-pilot Pierre-Cedric Bonin had started flying the Airbus A330 in April. His young wife Isabelle had come along with him on the trip and she talked about how much she had loved her brief two-day stopover in Rio.

    The second co-pilot, David Robert—on extended long-haul international flights, the practice is to have a third cockpit crewmember—had 6,600 flight hours with Air France and had qualified to fly the A330 in 2002.

    Their captain, Marc Dubois, at fifty, was a veteran pilot. Since June 1998 he had accumulated over 1700 hours on the A330 alone and flew the four engine A340, a common practice in airlines, which had both types on their fleet. This was his seventeenth rotation in the South America sector.

    But unknown to Captain Marc Dubois and his fellow crew as they chatted on the short thirty-minute trip to the airport, Air France Flight 447, bound for Paris over 5000 miles away on a long journey over the dark, turbulent waters of the Atlantic, that night was to be their last.

    *

    At Antonio Carlos Jobim International Airport, the crew climbed down from the bus for what they assumed would be just another leg home. The overcast sky held the temperature and humidity constant. Captain Dubois talked with his crew as they waited for their bags, co-pilot Bonin hurried off with his wife to help her check in.

    The bus driver offloaded the last of the luggage and Captain Dubois’ crew wheeled their suitcases inside. Purser Anne Grimout, a forty-nine year-old from Ermenonville, in Normandy, had worked for Air France for nearly twenty-five years. She chatted with Lucas Gagliano, who was the only Brazilian national working on the flight. Twenty-three year-old Lucas had returned to Brazil to attend his father’s funeral two weeks before.

    After queuing up for passport control, Captain Dubois left the flight attendants to their own preparations, while he led his two first officers to Air France operations.

    In the office, Dubois was handed the briefing pack for AF447 by the flight departure agent and sat down with Robert and Bonin to plan their flight from Rio to Paris. Meanwhile, an arriving Air France A330-200, registered as F-GZCP, touched down on the main runway and taxied to its stand.

    Ground staff at once commenced preparation of the jet for its next flight. The two Air France crew’s paths never crossed. The incoming crew had reported no major snags or malfunctions. Once refueled, the aircraft was good to go, part of a continuous cycle of usage that is the lot of modern aircraft. Down time is money lost. The more time an aircraft is in use, the more profit the company makes.

    In the briefing room, Dubois and his first officers studied their route. Weather in the mid-Atlantic at that time of year could be intense, massive storms a real threat. With no air traffic control facilities mid-Atlantic, a pilot must rely on preflight planning, reports from other aircraft enroute and their own aircraft’s radar to negotiate a way around such storms. Severe weather systems were forecast.

    But Dubois had often flown this route before and all in all, it looked as if it was going to be another routine flight.

    While Dubois and his crew finished going over the flight plan, their passengers were already proceeding through check-in and immigration procedures. Two hundred and sixteen passengers consisted of thirty-two nationalities. They included a baby and seven other children. Sixty-one passengers were French citizens; fifty-eight were Brazilian and twenty-eight German. 

    Thirty-four year-old Swede Christine Schnabl and her five-year-old son Philippe were checked in and waiting for the flight. Christine, living in Brazil for 10 years, worked for the Swedish Chamber of Commerce in Rio and missed her relations in Sweden.

    Her husband Fernando and their three-year-old daughter Celine had flown to Paris earlier with a different airline, intending to travel together for the homeward journey to Sweden for a holiday. According to one newspaper report, the Rio-based family always flew separately. Mr. and Mrs. Schnabl always feared they would all die together if their airplane crashed, and so they booked different flights (1).

    It was a decision that was going to tear this loving family apart forever.

    By the time everyone was onboard it was already past scheduled departure of p.m. local, 22 h 00 UTC. The flight attendant’s headcount confirmed the numbers. Captain Dubois signed the load sheet and the ground crew said ‘bon voyage’ before closing the door.

    Ground crew confirmed pre-departure checks were complete and just before 22 h 10, the flight crew called the tower for pushback and engine start and they received the clearance to do so.

    Satisfied that everything was as it should be, Captain Dubois called for brake release. At 22 h 10, Flight 447 pushed back from the gate. A short taxi later, the A330 powered down the runway, increasing speed until it climbed gracefully into the air at 22 h 29 mins.

    Once airborne the crew contacted Rio De Janeiro approach control and soon after were passed

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