Pilots like to say that every safe landing is really just a controlled crash. In this witty and entertaining memoir of his airline career, Eldon Brown whisks us back to the heyday of the airline industry, when it was fun to fly and salesmanship was a creative art. During his decades in cargo management with airlines like Japan and Northwest, Brown crosses paths with a surprising array of life forms: wily entrepreneurs, stowaway cockroaches, and, yes, a drunken bear. Along the way, there are challenges to be met with pluck and imagination. For example, he conducts reconnaissance missions (when his 007 persona springs to the fore). He arranges fl ights for fauna like eels, ostriches, tuna, and the Dallas Cowboys. He also has to learn to accommodate his relaxed American style to the rigidity of a Japanese managerial culture, to stay true to American values in places where less rigorous ethical standards are the norm, and to deal with such worrisome passengers as a tipsy senator, Dr. Timothy Leary, and an escaped mental patient. Through it all, Brown's common sense and sly humor prevail, making this book a fi ne and fun read.

During the night of 04th May 2007, the B737-800, registration 5Y-KYA, operated by Kenya Airways as flight KQA 507 from Abidjan international airport (C te d'Ivoire), to the Jomo Kenyatta airport Nairobi (Kenya), made a scheduled stop-over at the Douala international airport (Cameroon). The weather was stormy. A number of departing planes decided to wait for the weather to improve. Kenya Airways, however, decided to depart. Shortly after take-off at about 1000 ft, the aircraft entered into a slow right roll that increased continuously and eventually ended up in a spiral dive. On the 5th May 2007 at approximately 0008 hrs, the airplane crashed in a mangrove swamp South-South/East of Douala. All 114 people on board were killed and the airplane was completely destroyed. The airplane crashed after loss of control by the crew as a result of spatial disorientation, after a long slow roll, during which no instrument scanning was done, and in the absence of external visual references in a dark night.

In the bestselling tradition of CLIVE CUSSLER Hold your breath.... HE'S BRAVED THE DARKEST WATERS...BUT NOW HE'S WAY OUT OF HIS DEPTH. Ben Gannon is the best deep-sea recovery expert in the business. No salvage is too deep, no job too risky. But when Ben and his crew find several bodies—shot—in a helicopter wreck, the risk becomes more deadly than even the most hostile waters. Lured to an ultra-high-tech oil rig in the middle of the ocean, Gannon finds himself thrown into a deadly game of cat and mouse against a corps of trained killers. Trapped in the balance—the lives of everyone aboard the rig. With no hope of rescue, and nowhere to hide, Gannon must survive long enough to stop a murderous fanatic's devastating plans. And if he fails this time, there's no coming up for air. CRASH DIVE Drawing from his own experiences as a professional oil field diver and independent salvage operator, John McKinna has crafted a white-knuckle thriller of international intrigue and terror that will take your breath away....

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Negroni is a talented aviation journalist who clearly understands the critically important part the human factor plays in aviation safety.” —Captain Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, pilot of US Airways 1549, the Miracle on the Hudson A fascinating exploration of how humans and machines fail—leading to air disasters from Amelia Earhart to MH370—and how the lessons learned from these accidents have made flying safer. In The Crash Detectives, veteran aviation journalist and air safety investigator Christine Negroni takes us inside crash investigations from the early days of the jet age to the present, including the search for answers about what happened to the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. As Negroni dissects what happened and why, she explores their common themes and, most important, what has been learned from them to make planes safer. Indeed, as Negroni shows, virtually every aspect of modern pilot training, airline operation, and airplane design has been shaped by lessons learned from disaster. Along the way, she also details some miraculous saves, when quick-thinking pilots averted catastrophe and kept hundreds of people alive. Tying in aviation science, performance psychology, and extensive interviews with pilots, engineers, human factors specialists, crash survivors, and others involved in accidents all over the world, The Crash Detectives is an alternately terrifying and inspiring book that might just cure your fear of flying, and will definitely make you a more informed passenger. “Christine Negroni combines her investigative reporting skills with an understanding of the complexities of air accident investigations to bring to life some of history’s most intriguing and heartbreaking cases.” —Bob Woodruff, ABC News