10 Flights That Shouldn't Have Made It by Paul Jonas

You picked up this book because you love the moment when a crew takes a failing machine and turns it into a story retold for 20 years. You have heard miracle on the Hudson and wondered what 208 seconds of silence felt like with 2 engines dead over a city of 8,000,000. Or you fly often and want to know what saves lives when systems quit at 3,000 feet. Whatever brought you here, you share a belief with every pilot in these pages: preparation beats panic, and teams beat heroes.
This book is not a Hollywood script with invented dialogue and not a textbook buried in checklists. It is not near misses that end in luck and not a lecture that pretends fear does not exist. What you need is 12 real emergencies told moment by moment, from the first bang to the last call, with the training and design that made survival possible when the manual said it was not.
Inside, you'll discover:
• How Sullenberger and Skiles glided an A320 with 0 thrust to the Hudson and saved 155 lives in 3.5 minutes
• How 4 pilots flew a DC10 with no hydraulics using throttles and saved 184 of 296 in Sioux City
• How a 747 flew through volcanic ash, lost all 4 engines, and relit them at 13,000 feet
• How a 767 became the Gimli Glider after a fuel error and slipped onto a drag strip with 0 engines
• How a 737 landed on a levee near New Orleans with both engines drowned and 45 walked away
• How an Aloha 737 kept flying with an 18 foot hole at 24,000 feet and 94 of 95 survived
• How a Qantas A380 survived an explosion that cut 21 systems and landed with 469 on board
Each chapter ends with the change that followed, from Doppler radar that now protects 100% of major airports to stricter checks for fan disks. You will save about $300 per year in avoidable anxiety when you understand redundancy and crew management. These 12 emergencies will scare you for 5 minutes and reassure you for 50 years.