Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Preface 1
Prologue 5
Part I "I don't sleep well nights"
1 The Day the Movies Almost Died: Pan American World Airways Flight 115 9
2 Melting Into a Threatening Sky: Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 705 19
3 "Unusual conditions and circumstances": The Investigation of Northwest Orient Flight 705 28
4 "A turbulence problem"? Persistent Questions 44
5 "It broke the sound barrier at least once": United Airlines Flight 746 47
6 "The Nation's Most Progressive Airline": Eastern Air Lines 52
7 A Strange, Weird Thing: Eastern Air Lines Flight 301 59
8 Disappeared into the Overcast: Eastern Air Lines Flight 304 64
9 Extraordinary Lives: Grant Newby, Marie-Héléne Lefaucheux and Kenneth Lee Spencer 69
10 "Extreme disintegration of the aircraft structure": The Investigation of Eastern Air Lines Flight 304 82
Part II Falls City
11 Dusting Off a Dusty Little Airline: Braniff International Airways 99
12 Airstrip: "The End of the Plain Plane" 107
13 Fastback Jet: The BAC One-11 113
14 Happy Birthday! Bill Schock and That Night in August 124
15 Milk Run: Braniff International Flight 250 128
16 "One big, terrible nightmare": Flight 250 and Falls City 134
17 "Ease power back": The Investigation of Braniff Flight 250 160
18 Mr. Tornado: Dr. Ted Fujita and the Squall Line of August 6-7, 1966 169
19 Knocked from the Sky: A High-Intensity Force 179
Part III Postscript
20 New Normals: The "Before" and "After" Times 187
Notes 195
Bibliography 203
Index 213