Safer Skies: An Accident Investigator on Why Planes Crash and the State of Aviation Safety

Absolutely fascinating book. You learn about keeping the planes in good shape, and how difficult that is when many of the people who work on them do not have the drive and intelligence to do a really ethical job. David Soucie is an exceptionallybright and dedicated expert, which we have learned also from seeing him on television when there is a crash somewhere.The book tells of the development of this extraordinary man as he grew up in the flying business. It is a story of keeping planes flying and healthy in a world in which mediocrity runs amok in many manufacturing situations. Soucie is the perfect person to tell this story, because he is able to tell the story from three perspectives, The love of flying was his starting point. Second, he is a man to whom keeping his family together and happy while his work kept him away from home for months at a time. Third, his love of flying together with his drive to provide increased safety to aviation make him the perfect person to tell this story.

Improving Aviation Safety – “Until that day, I had thought of flying as fun, a chance to be free from the earth and to command the universe from high above. Mr. McC……. gave me my first glimpse of the pain and suffering that flying can cause. Although unknown to me at the time, this was the beginning of my lifelong passion – some would say obsession – for improving aviation safety. It was not my plan, but it was my fate.” Why Planes Crash, page 14.For more than 30 years Mr. Soucie has been, and is continuing to be to this day, an advocate for aviation safety. When you read his book, he documents the reason and explains why planes crash and how some of the crashes he’s investigated, as an aviation accident investigator, could have been prevented. He also provides insights to change the way we think to make safer choices both in and out of the aviation industry.In addition to his professional commitment in aviation, it is also a personal commitment. Mr. Soucie explains in detail the heart-wrenching personal pain and loss of friends and colleagues that has changed his life forever and continues to be motivated to keep fulfilling promises made to improve aviation safety.While the book has chilling and gripping detailed accounts of accidents Mr. Soucie has investigated, he has been sensitive about the details with respect to their families. I believe that in reading the book and his accounts about his personal pain and loss, these life-changing experiences probably allowed him to become even more sensitive and compassionate towards those who also have lost loved ones.For those considering a career in the FAA, Mr. Soucie shares his perspective of what life is like in the FAA and the aviation industry in general (the rewards, the challenges, the good days, the challenging days) as an accident investigator and how his career impacted family life, how difficult it can be when part of the job required a lot of travel, relocation to other areas for long stretches at a time and then making choices how to keep a family together.Why should you read the book and who is it intended for?This book is written for anyone who has little to no understanding about the aviation industry, those who work within all aspects of the aviation industry and those who are in positions of authority and decision making. By the time you finish reading the book, you will have a greater sense of understanding for the work accident investigators do, how difficult it can be and how you can make safety choices within both aviation and non-aviation industries.By reading the book, you get an inside perspective of Mr. Soucie’s commitment to improve aviation safety. It is an easy read yet the details of the accidents will force you to pause, reflect about life and then move on better than before.Mr. Soucie is periodically on CNN providing insight, commentary and analysis from the accidents of MH370 and now MH17 using past experiences from his 30+ year career helping us understand what is involved in accident investigations. He also provides from time to time insights to educate and inform the CNN viewers how to be safety conscious as we prepare to travel.

This was a very good book, but not what I expected. I thought it would be a compendium of Why Planes Crash (hence the title) and there would be dozens of causes. Instead, this was a deeply personal book about Soucie's experiences and why he has become such a crusader for airplane safety. There are plenty of plane (and helicopter) crashes in the book with varying causes, but the overriding arc of the story is Soucie's involvement in various commercial enterprises and with the FAA as an investigator. I gave the book a high rating because it held my interest all the way and with his ghost writer, was well written. If you've seen this guy on TV as a commentator after the Malaysian airline and Air Asia crashes, this book puts a whole lot of humanity behind the commentary, including the times he himself almost died and on his family life. A good read.

Although the story is not badly told, this is not an account of why planes crash and the state of aviation safety. It is instead a biography and over a third of the book is the author's life before the FAA. A great deal of the book centers on the author's marriage and family as well as personal obstacles - this isn't what I expected, especially when you can find plenty of interviews by the author and he's totally engaging and articulate when actually speaking about aviation accidents and safety...

Mr. Soucie presents his vast knowledge of safety and the aviation industry in memoir fashion. He has had a fascinating career, rising from a helicopter mechanic to a safety inspector with the FAA and a CNN aviation and safety expert. He explains how his own actions propelled him in the direction of aviation safety. Well written with a sense of humor and a personal touch, I highly recommend this book to anyone who has ever depended on others for their safety: In other words, all of us.

I was "introduced" to David Soucie via his role as a CNN aviaition consultant. Every time he was a guest on a CNN show there was a plug for his book. I've always been intruiged with aviation and have read many aviation-related books, but have found many are overly technical and are a series of independent short stories scrunched together to make a book.I was expecting much the same from Soucie's book but ordered it anyway. To say I was surprised would be an understatement. It read like a novel and I finsihed it in two days.The book traced his life in which he's been involved in avaiation from an early age. many of the points he made were illustrated thru accidents he 's investigated and experience he's faced while working in the industry.I highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in aviation.

This is more a memoir (of a pretty interesting career, no doubt), but by no means an authoritative text on the subject. It's obvious the author is dedicated to finding out why accidents continue to happen, and obviously made a few enemies along the way, I can see from the writing style he would've alienated colleagues. All in all, a disappointing read from my perspective - the title etc gives the impression that it is almost a textbook, but written as a memoir, I just don't think it works.

My interest in purchasing this book was prompted by the author's appearance on CNN, following the disappearance of Malaysia flight 370. With an engineering background I was expecting a lot more intricate analysis and more technical detail, of a wide range of air crashes. What I found, however, was more of a personal account of career moves, confrontations, and FAA politics. That is not to say that such human-based bureaucratic games do not contribute to such crashes, which is very sad, but that my interest in such activities has run its course.

Este libro es imprescindible para cualquier persona, aficionada o profesional, interesada en el negocio de la aviacion. Con mas razon para aquellos interesados en prevencion e investigacion de accidentes o control de la conformidad.

Good read

Incredible stories, I'm half way through and very curious to get the final moral of the story.