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

by David Soucie, Ozzie Cheek (With)

The past and future of airline safety—a memoir of successes, crashes, and near misses—by a former FAA accident inspector.

Boarding an airplane strikes at least a small sense of fear into most people. Even though we all have heard that the odds of being struck by lightning are greater than the odds of perishing in a plane crash, it still doesn’t feel that way. Airplane crashes might be rare, but they do happen, and they’re usually fatal. David Soucie insists that most of these deaths could be prevented.

He’s worked in the cockpit, on the hangar floor, within the aviation boardroom, and inside the Washington, DC, beltway. He’s seen death up close and personal—deaths of colleagues and friends that might have been prevented if he had approved certain safety measures in the aircraft they were handling. Years of experience have led Dave to become an impassioned consultant on the topic of airline safety. This includes not only advising the Obama administration, but also the Department of Transportation, the Department of Defense, Homeland Security, NASA, and the Office of National Intelligence. Soucie was also a lead consultant and analyst for coverage of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, which went missing in March 2014.

Find out the truth about airplane safety and discover what the future holds for air travel in Safer Skies.

Genres: Aviation, Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published March 3, 2015

About the author

David B Soucie is now a CNN Safety Analyst, on air throughout the day: New Day, Ashley Banfield, Newsroom, Jake Tapper Show, Piers Morgan, Anderson Cooper.

He's worked in the cockpit, on the hanger floor, crash sites, within the aviation boardroom, and inside the Washington D.C. beltway. He's seen death up close and personal. Author of "WHY PLANES CRASH" An Accident Investigator's Fight for Safe Skies a memoir of crashes and near-misses, pain and redemption by a former Federal Agent Aviation Executive and FAA Accident Inspector.

Reviews

[Michaela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having watched all the Air Crash Investigation episodes, I expected this book to analyze the most famous plane crashes one by one into detail. When I started reading and realized it would be more of a memoir about the author's career in aviation safety, at first, I was a little disappointed.

But then after about 20 pages I got really into it and in no time was reading page 70, then page 150 and then I was done and wishing for more! And in the end, I was glad this was a different perspective into the industry - with a personal approach, a continual story about one person's intention of making flying as safe as possible and willing to go against the flow.

Even though I bought this book because I am very much interested in aviation, I think even people who know zilch about planes might enjoy it very much because it's such a nice and devoted piece of writing.

Kudos, Mr. Soucie, and I hope I can expect more books from you in the future.

[Dee Eisel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Here's another one in the class of books that I so very much wanted to like, but ended up feeling underwhelmed when I read.

For starters, it's just not a very good read. Instead of talking about the actual incidents that led to airline reform, Soucie talks about how the crashes made him feel. Instead of giving insight into the culture of safety or lack thereof, we hear about how he moved all over the country. That's not to say it wouldn't be interesting in a different book, but I got really tired of hearing about how his wife didn't want to move from Colorado Yet Again. I don't like to feel misled by book titles, but this one definitely did that.

I am disappointed to be giving this review. Maybe someone else would like it, but honestly I learn a lot more about why planes crash from any single episode of Air Disasters than I did from this book. Two of five stars.

[Josh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite interesting, but a little too heavy on the biographical side and too light on the actual accident investigation side.

[Asher · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was expecting in-depth reports on air crash case studies and did not anticipate it to be an autobiography because I ignored the synopsis. However, to my delight, this is a wonderful memoir, well written and witty. Mr Soucie is a symbol of hard work and resilience. He is someone whom I aspire to be in the future - an elite in his field of work, professional and ethical, always striving for continual progress and excellence.

P.S. I want a wife like Jill too