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. Please Note; Safer Skies is a Re-Issue of Why Planes Crash in Paperback with a brief update. If you have already purchased and read Why Planes Crash, THANK YOU. I don't want anyone waste their money buying the same book twice. Please Note; Safer Skies is a Re-Issue of Why Planes Crash in Paperback with a brief update.  If you have already purchased and read Why Planes Crash, THANK YOU.  I don't want anyone waste their money buying the same book twice. David Soucie is the owner of Sans Souci Enterprises, LLC, a disaster recovery company based in Silverthorne, Colorado. He also works with CNN as a safety analyst and with the Federal Aviation Administration as a member of the Safety Management Implementation (SMI) Committee and serves on the Safety Management Systems Focus Group in Washington, DC. Previously, he was an aviation safety inspector at the FAA and, before that, served as the senior director of technical services for Air Methods Inc., one of the largest helicopter emergency medical operations in the world. He resides in Lakewood, Colorado. Ozzie Cheek is a writer, producer, and published short-story author. Safer Skies An Accident Investigator on Why Planes Crash and the State of Aviation Safety By David Soucie, Ozzie Cheek Skyhorse Publishing Copyright © 2011 David Soucie All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-1-63220-589-6 Contents Introduction, CHAPTER ONE Bird on a Wire, CHAPTER TWO Faster Than a Speeding Bullet, CHAPTER THREE Flight-Test Dummy, CHAPTER FOUR Every Picture Tells a Story, CHAPTER FIVE The Odds of Surviving, CHAPTER SIX The Sisters of Charity, CHAPTER SEVEN Flying Blind, CHAPTER EIGHT White-Collar Grime, CHAPTER NINE Hooter and Bagel Boy, CHAPTER TEN Dying Lessons, CHAPTER ELEVEN Bloodhounds and Bookkeepers, CHAPTER TWELVE The Bambi Hazard, CHAPTER THIRTEEN Human Sacrifice, CHAPTER FOURTEEN Brothers in Arms, CHAPTER FIFTEEN Call Off the Search, CHAPTER SIXTEEN Rock Fever, CHAPTER SEVENTEEN Paradise Lost, CHAPTER EIGHTEEN See Rabbit Run, CHAPTER NINETEEN Hazardous Duty, CHAPTER TWENTY The Incredible Journey of Tic Tac Man, CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE The Flight of Practical Cats, CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO The Puzzle Master, CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE License to Kill, CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR The Summer of Deadly Lies, CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE Burning Heaven, CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX Pigs in the Sky, CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN When the Sky Is Falling, CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT Aviation Oversight, CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE Men Wearing Boys' Coats, Epilogue, Appendix: History of the Federal Aviation Administration, The Nine FAA Responsibilities, My Analysis and Recommendations for FAA Changes Following the Review of the Aloha Airlines' Accident, Safety Information Sharing Environment Diagram, Bibliography, CHAPTER 1 Bird on a Wire From across the room, I could see Jill's smile through the Christmas tree tinsel. She was reading A Christmas Carol to our son, Tyler. Her eyes met mine, and her smile disappeared. After five years of marriage, she knew when something was wrong. "David," she said, "are you okay?" I dropped the telephone receiver on the floor and fell to my knees. Tears filled my eyes. Jill tossed the book aside and rose from her chair near the fireplace. "You're scaring me, sweetie," she said. "What is it?" I looked at her, but I couldn't speak. She hurried over and knelt beside me. "Breathe!" she yelled. "You're not breathing, David!" I gasped for air. "They went down. Mike and them. Mike Myers hit a wire and now ... oh god!" "Who else?" Jill asked desperately, while hugging me. "Who was with him?" Jill knew Mike and his family, as well as the fli