Crash Forensics
George Bibel, an Air Line Pilots Association advanced aircraft accident qualified investigator, addresses aircraft safety technology in his book, "Beyond the Black Box: The Forensics of Airplane Crashes," published by The Johns Hopkins University Press. Bibel explains the significance of not only the "black box" and its contents, but how crash investigations have increased the current standard of airline safety. Beginning with the 1931 Fokker F-10A crash that killed football coach Knute Rockne, the book provides a behind-the-scenes look at aviation crash investigations. In each chapter, Bibel, a professor of mechanical engineering at the School of Engineering and Mines at the University of North Dakota, explains why crashes occur and how forensic experts, scientists and engineers analyze factors like impact, debris, loading, fire patterns, metallurgy, fracture, crash testing and human tolerances in their investigations.
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