Just finished it but sadly can’t post a 5 star review as I haven’t spent enough dosh with Amazon recently.
Extremely well researched, written, technical and factual. Having had a flight control issue and put out a mayday on a VC10 as well as knowing what went on with the Staines Inquiry which killed my best mate and the losses in the RAF in the 60s where one year saw nearly a daily loss of airframes I was still surprised that this stuff went on to such a degree. But with the background of Covid and the politicians I am not surprised. A late very close mate was head of ROI army intelligence and one of the first things he asked me whilst sailing 25 years ago was about it. At the time it was pilot error but the press included details of the increase in life assurance and a telephone call to father or father in law to look after my family. In light of the Boeing Max accidents, again with some racist remarks on a British pilots forum wrt pilot error, nothing changes. I’ve seen sudden 1200 % speed increase on GPS and my last company had many issues with electronic interference from Nintendo game boys and old disc players. Lastly a mate on a large twin Boeing had double failure pages come up when he transmitted on HF. Lack of shielding which would have been post 1994. I flew the first DC10ER over the North Pole where we had a track discrepancy of 30 degrees which in the middle of the artic night with less than minimum fuel wasn’t fun although there was a simple remedy and the software fault was sorted but to dispatch continually unsafe and unserviceable aircraft with the top intelligence brass on board is either complete stupidity or deliberate political tactics. I haven’t a clue but I do know wrt the IRA attacks on BEA Tridents that there was collusion between both sides. It will never be answered as the truth of the Dublin Monaghan bombings.
Well worth the read.