About this item
Twenty-five years after the catastrophe, a dramatic and extraordinarily rare 360-degree view of the crash of a fully loaded jumbo jet. As hundreds of rescue workers waited on the ground, United Airlines Flight 232 wallowed drunkenly over the bluffs northwest of Sioux City. The plane slammed onto the runway and burst into a vast fireball. The rescuers didnt move at first: nobody could possibly survive that crash. And then people began emerging from the summer corn that lined the runways. Miraculously, 184 of 296 passengers lived. No one has ever attempted the complete reconstruction of a crash of this magnitude. Drawing on interviews with hundreds of survivors, crew, and airport and rescue personnel, Laurence Gonzales, a commercial pilot himself, captures, minute-by-minute, the harrowing journey of pilots flying a plane with no controls and flight attendants keeping their calm in the face of certain death. He plumbs the hearts and minds of passengers as they pray, bargain with God, plot their strategies for survival, and sacrifice themselves to save others. Ultimately he takes us, step-by-step, through the gripping scientific detective work in super-secret labs to dive into the heart of a flaw smaller than a grain of rice that shows what brought the aircraft down. An unforgettable drama of the triumph of heroism over tragedy and human ingenuity over technological breakdown, Flight 232 is a masterpiece in the tradition of the greatest aviation stories ever told.
About the Author
Laurence Gonzales was named a Journalism Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute in 2015 and appointed to be an SFI Miller Scholar in 2016. He has won numerous awards for his books and essays, including two National Magazine Awards, the Carl Sandburg Literary Award, and the Sigma Delta Chi Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. He has won the Montaigne Medal and two Eric Hoffer Awards from the Eric Hoffer Society.He is the author of the best-seller "Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why," which was released in a new edition by W.W. Norton in 2016. The sequel to this book, "Surviving Surival: The Art and Science of Resilience," was named one of the best books of 2012 by Kirkus Reviews. His collection of essays from the University of Arkansas Press is entitled "House of Pain."His latest book is "Flight 232: A Story of Disaster and Survival," a 360-degree reconstruction of the crash of a fully-loaded jumbo jet. Richard Rhodes, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for "The Making of the Atomic Bomb," called this book, "Intense, gripping, alive with knowledge and compassion, Flight 232 is a new masterpiece of calamity and courage."To see a video of the actual crash, visit the web site here: flight232.comYou can also read excerpts of his books there and see the video trailer for his novel "Lucy" published by Alfred A. Knopf and available from Vintage paperbacks.Praise for Flight 232 "A ferocious close-up account..." Times of London "Masterful reporting..." San Francisco Chronicle "A masterful book! --Budd Davisson, Editor-in-Chief Flight Journal magazine "I couldn't put it down. What an incredible work Laurence Gonzales has created. I have never seen such a thorough and fascinating treatise about an aircraft accident. Too bad he wasn't around to do the same with the Hindenburg." --Barry Schiff, Author of The Proficient Pilot. "Chronicling the greatest 'successful failure' of the Jet Age, Gonzales takes us on an amazing journey that begins with a slight impurity---no larger than a grain of rice---in a massive fan disk and ends in a remarkable tale of chance, impromptu invention, astounding heroics, and the pure will to survive. The fact that anyone, let alone 184 people, survived this crash is miraculous; though it is only in the careful exposition of such miracles that one gains an understanding of our complex technological world and of ourselves. - Prof. John H. Miller External Faculty, Santa Fe Institute Head of the Department of Social and Decision Sciences Carnegie Mellon University "I think it's a masterpiece. I think of books like Hiroshima, Fate Is The Hunter, or A Night To Remember, or even Alive. It's a classic, plain and simple." - Tony Bill, winner of the Academy Award for "The Sting."Praise for Surviving Survival"Timely, realistic, and accessible self-help book o
