In 2009, Captain Chesley "Sully"
Sullenberger and his crew landed a severely damaged Airbus A320 on the
Hudson River. All 155 passengers survived with only minor injuries.
It was a miracle in the history of aviation. Do you know, there
exists an equally miraculous incident in Australia's Qantas airline?
Indeed, in 2010, Captain Richard Champion
de Crespigny and his crew landed a heavily damaged Airbus A380 (Qantas Flight 32) at
Singapore Changi airport. The captain and his crew saved the lives of
440 souls onboard the aeroplane. For the first time, the story behind
this miracle is told in a book called QF32. My book club
selected this book for our January reading.
Aside from the story about Qantas
Flight 32, this book is also a biography for Captain de Crespigny.
The first half of the book provided an overview for Captain de
Crespigny's early life until he became a captain at Qantas airline.
I was surprised to discover, Captain de Crespigny once started a
successful IT company called Aeronaut Industries. In fact, when my
colleague saw me reading this book, we had a chat about it, where my
colleague mentioned he once purchased a software from Captain de Crespigny's company (my colleague still has a receipt signed by the man himself). Speaking of coincidences!
After reading the first half of QF32, I thought Captain de Crespigny is a multi-talented man with
fascinating life experiences. However, that was only half of the
book. The second half was where the drama of Qantas Flight 32
unfolds. I liked the narrations in this book; it was fact driven,
fast-paced, and it also provided blow-by-blow accounts for the
incident. While the narratives contained technical information, but I opine, the readers don't need to be experts of aviation to
understand the technical details in the book. In other words, if you
have read Andy Weir's The Martian and the technical terms in
that book didn't bother you, then you will be fine with QF32
also.
If you end up reading QF32, then
make sure to read the appendix section. This is where Captain de
Crespigny attached the damage assessment report for Qantas Flight 32.
The damage to the aircraft was catastrophic! I was amazed, at how the
captain and his crew were able to land the plane at all. I think the
story in QF32 shows that when you have good, responsible
people who know what they are doing, then even the worst disaster can
be salvaged to save valuable human lives.
I recommend QF32. This is an
incredible story. If you like the movie, Sully, then you are
likely to enjoy this book too.
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