PLANE CRASH!

...is a series of accounts of major air disasters, from the Orville Wright crash in 1908 to the Rikers Island holocaust in February of 1957. Considered are the main causes of air fatalities: weather conditions, structural and design failure, collisions, fire hazards in flight, sabotage and human error. Included is an explanation of the function of the CAB -- Civil Acronautics Board -- the detective and remedial efforts of hundreds of specialists, months of detailed study, the sifting of bits and shreds of metal and all the relevant human factors that could have any bearing on why a single elaborately designed and skillfully operated plane of the thousands in the air, should go down. Examples and explanations of several crashes and accidents -- a ship on route to Tokyo from Vancouver which vanished without a trace, the Elizabeth, N.J. trilogy of similar crashes, the recent Denver, Colo. sabotaging, and the disappearance, in 1928, of financier Alfred from a plane crossing the English Channel- all illustrate the problems accompanying progress in terms of good reporting, undramatized.