I remember hearing about Quantas flight QF72 a few years ago but the detail and explanation of what happened on the flight is incredible. A modern airliner, that would not respond to the pilot’s control inputs as the computers, acting on erroneous data, could not be over ridden and were determined to point the nose of the aircraft at the ocean.
As a software engineer myself, I was extremely interested in understanding what had happened in this case as my own personal mantra, based on years of IT project experience, is ‘never let IT professionals anywhere near projects involving bridges or aeroplanes.’
In this case the aircrafts computers had determined that they needed to act and that the pilot was wrong. It sounds like something from a science fiction film and, more recently and tragically, a forewarning of what can happen when automation goes wrong, as in the two well documented Boeing 737 MAX accidents.
The author, Kevin Sullivan is an ex-US Navy pilot who flew F14s and graduated from the Navy’s fighter weapons school, or Top Gun, in the early eighties. He tells his story with passion and there are many anecdotes about his time flying fast jets from carriers. My own personal favourite involves him approaching a carrier landing but still over maximum landing weight.
His solution, select zone 5 afterburner (maximum) and try to burn off as much fuel as possible, whilst approaching the carrier at over 500 knots! This worked and after a successful landing he describes how it took him hours to come down from the high.
On the day of QF72 – as captain, he needed all those precision military skills he had spent years developing to try and over come a computer that was trying to push the aircraft down into the ocean.
The story of the flight is told from start to finish in great detail and is interspersed with details and stories from his military career. It flows well and is compelling to read. The second half of the book, goes on to deal with the years following the accident and the authors struggle with PTSD and his attempts to come to terms with what happened on that fateful day.
Its an excellent read, and even though some of the content is quite technical, the author manages to ensure it is explained in such a way that it is clear and understandable.
There are a handful of photographs in the centre of the book from his early military flying days, right through until his retirement from Quantas.
The book is definitely one I would recommend as quite apart from telling a story, that needed to be told, in an engaging way, the author is donating money raised from the royalties to help PTSD sufferers.
Dan Roach Flying Author 