The Tombstone Imperative: The Truth About Air Safety

by Andrew Weir

Covering an investigation into the safety of passenger aircraft and flight by the producer of the Black Box, this book combines chilling survivors' tales, detailed descriptions of aircraft crashes and causes with serious discussion of safety issues.

Genres: Nonfiction, Aviation

337 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Chris Lightfoot]

On balance, this is a poor book. Whilst accepting it’s now a few years old, the research is not sufficient. Some of the accident reporting summary is good but assumptions are frequently made. As a result of this, huge swathes of this book are simply inaccurate or untrue. I would not recommend this book.

[Catherine]

OMG everyone should read this. This is Michael Crichton's "Airframe" come true. The facts and figures should be eye bleeding but the style of writing, the authors organisational ability make this facinating. This was written well before all the air crash/disaster documentaries came out and it covers pretty much everything they have ever discussed. What is horrifying is the "rules" for making and using aircraft, and running airlines, are purely based on financial considerations not safety or providing a service. Basically the rule is if it's too expensive to do they don't have to do it. And even if it is affordable they still don't have to do it until the calculated risks say that payments to families for deaths start to outweigh the changes. This is called the tombstone imperative - hence the title. This book didn't put me off flying, it informed my decisions. From my pathological dislike of in-cabin luggage to my avoidance of cheap-arse, failing on the stock exchange or small airlines.

[Ling Ling]

Every air passenger should read this.
And learn why you shouldn't put anything in the overhead bin that you won't mind falling on your head!

[CavyNomes]

cannot recommend highly enough. great read.