Beyond the Black Box: The Forensics of Airplane Crashes

by George Bibel

The black box is orange―and there are actually two of them. They house the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder, instruments vital to airplane crash analyses. But accident investigators cannot rely on the black boxes alone. Beginning with the 1931 Fokker F-10A crash that killed legendary football coach Knute Rockne, this fascinating book provides a behind-the-scenes look at plane wreck investigations. Professor George Bibel shows how forensic experts, scientists, and engineers analyze factors like impact, debris, loading, fire patterns, metallurgy, fracture, crash testing, and human tolerances to determine why planes fall from the sky―and how the information gleaned from accident reconstruction is incorporated into aircraft design and operation to keep commercial aviation as safe as possible.

Genres: Aviation, Nonfiction, Science, Engineering

408 pages, Hardcover

First published December 19, 2007

Reviews

[Katia M. Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It is helpful if the reader has a high school understanding of physics but it isn't essential as equations are explained, but it would make things a little easier to understand.

There was some repetition of examples and references back and forth through the chapters but it didn't upset the flow of reading.

I liked this book primarily because it does what it says it will do, it goes beyond the superficial data and covers in depth analyses of events and causes. Many publications or documentaries on air disasters skip much of this and focus heavily on the conclusions of an investigation without showing the reader or watcher the 'how' of it. This book delves into the various experiments and thought processes necessary to come to investigative conclusions.

My favourite chapters were:
3. In-flight Breakup
6. Metal Fatigue
8. Crash Testing
9. Human Tolerances to G Loads and Crash Forces.

Read this if you have a curious mind and want to know more than conclusions accepted as fact.

[Scott Humphries · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although he details crash after crash, Bibel provides an overwhelming sense of the staggering amount of brainpower, research and experience that has gone into the design and manufacturing of transport aircraft to make them as safe as possible.

[Steve Nichols · Rating 4 out of 5]

I might have only given the book a rating of 3 if I hadn’t graduated with the author. In case he reads this review I’d like to say this to him: “Hi George!! Fellow 1971 GHHS alum here! If I gave you my name you very well may not remember me and that would be no fault of yours. You were one of the class brainiacs, as this book attests, and if I wasn’t exactly a dunderhead, I was certainly trending that direction…so no hard feelings if you were to say, “who…?”” Anyway, both my wife and I are “Air Disaster” junkies and so this book provided me with some great background information for application to those episodes. I always fancied that I had a reasonably good grasp of physics but this book showed me that my knowledge barely scratched the surface…at least as applies to airline mishaps…which is why I almost gave the book a rating of 3…it felt like it was not intended for the general, flying public…or for your average reader. Anyway…I’m glad you’re not dead. A fellow 1971 grad mentioned you in such a way that made me think you had passed, and in looking for your obit I instead discovered THIS and some other books you wrote…and decided I should read it. If you’re curious who I am, contact your fellow 1971 brainiac classmate whose initials are ES. Best regards!! SN

[rabbitprincess · Rating 4 out of 5]

* * * * 1/2

A very comprehensive examination of airplane crashes, their investigation and the advances that have been made in safety. The author is a mechanical engineering professor and wrote this book in an effort to connect scientific/engineering concepts to real-life situations and to bridge the gap between, in his words, "scientifically superficial newspaper articles and government crash reports filled with excess technical jargon" (Preface, ix). And for the most part he has done this job admirably well. I must admit my attention wandered during the chapter on metal fatigue, and at the beginning my math-phobic self was slightly intimidated by all of the equations (I did not take physics as a separate science in high school) but overall this book had a lot to offer, especially in the chapters on combustion and human tolerance to crash factors.

There are some amazing incidents in this book, such as a flight crew managing to land a plane despite having ALL the hydraulics fail -- this is supposed to NEVER happen (losing all hydraulics), but somehow they were able to pull it off. The book also discusses several notable air accidents, such as the Lockerbie bombing, the Swissair Flight 111 crash and the Air France crash on August 2, 2005, at Pearson International Airport in Toronto, where everyone was evacuated and then the plane caught fire. An image of this crash adorns the front cover of this book (you can see a similar image here).

And it is really quite perturbing what the human body goes through during excessive G forces -- you've heard of blackouts? Well, there are also "greyouts", where your vision goes cloudy (as a prelude to a blackout) and "redouts", where you're subjected to so many Gs that excessive amounts of blood rush into your eyeballs. Gross. Also the things people do for science: one type of drop test involves dropping "detached cadaver heads" with sensors in them. All of this is discussed in the chapter on human tolerance of crash forces.

But don't let this book make you think that flying is dangerous. Far from it. The author wanted to demonstrate that flying is actually pretty safe, considering all of the testing and paper trails and rigorous standards the planes have to comply with. Crashes are the result of a whole bunch of highly improbable events happening in a single incident. I think I'll still be nervous about flying, but then I am nervous about pretty much everything.

This is a very informative book that demands re-reading. Therefore I shall buy my own copy for future reference. Recommended for aviation enthusiasts, physics geeks and people who are mechanically minded in general.

I came across this book by chance in the public library's online catalogue, inspired by a visit to the Transportation Safety Board of Canada Engineering Laboratory in Ottawa, Ontario.

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very comprehensive and thorough. This book would be excellent for any engineers who design mobile equipment -- not just airplanes.


Airplanes are the most sophisticated transportation devices of our day, they are designed with the best tools available, and they are tested to an extremely high degree. Two things drive this: First, the obvious need for safety; Second, the requirement for minimum weight. Without safety, airplanes would not be allowed for public service. Without minimum weight, they would not have a performance level that would support economic usefulness.


Surprisingly, one of the single most important issues is aircraft design is from cabin pressurization. Pressurized cabins are a necessity for airliners that operate well in excess of 20,000 feet: Without this, the oxygen levels would be so low that the passengers and crew would lose consciousness. Problem is, pressurized cabins subject the aircraft hull to high degrees of hoop stress. Making this worse, the hoop stress builds up and diminishes on every flight, producing metal fatigue with inevitable cracking of structural members. Several well known accidents happened from this specific cause.


On page 116, there is an interesting observation: "Pressurized gas is dangerous. Pressurized water is not." The analysis explains why: Pressurized gas contains vastly more stored energy, while compressed water contains very little. The ratio of gas energy to water energy, for a 747, is about 20,000 to 1. This is a huge factor with fatigue resistance, and an equally huge factor for a decompression event.


Risk is a part of all powered equipment designed for use by humans, be the device as simple as a refrigerator or as complicated as an airplane. Most devices do not have to worry about unplanned contact with the ground, but share plenty of other issues. Like, being certain of the safety from any electrical systems (short circuits are never good!), stability of the machine (people have been hurt from using the door of a dryer as a ladder), prevention of unintended motion, and on and on.


Anyone who designs machinery would be well advised to read this book.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not the intended audience for this book - with a degree in aerospace engineering, I flipped past many of the author's simplified explanations of physics/engineering concepts - but because it is written without the assumption that the reader doesn't necessarily have a technical background, I think this book would be accessible even for high school students. The explanations are fairly clear, and the cases presented are for the most part well-known. If you are curious about how the NTSB investigates air crashes, how they figure out what went wrong, or what good the investigations do, this book is for you.

[Brent · Rating 4 out of 5]

I still refer back to the stories and lessons learned from this very good book. If you want to know why airplanes are made the way they are for commercial aviation and survivability this book is for you the general reader.

[AJ Armstrong · Rating 3 out of 5]

A competent and detailed look at aircraft failure analysis and design. Most prominent issue is that by attempting to meet the needs of interested technical laymen as well as engineers, the discussions are simultaneously opague to one audience and facile to the other.

[Kyle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although its author's prose is dry and sometimes repetitive, this detailed study of the history and physics of airplane crashes taught me a lot. Recommended for air disaster geeks.

[Wayne · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very detailed explanation of the physical forces acting upon the aircraft and the passengers in them.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not a bad basic overview of the physics of flight

[Cfenno · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very dry. reads like a government technical report. Couldn't finish it.