Description

By: W.D. Becker

Shattered Wings is collection of fourteen aircraft accidents that have taken place in the Great Lakes region of the United States. Ranging from the earliest days of commercial aviation to 1970, each of these tales was chosen to provide the reader with an insight into this region’s rich aviation heritage.

Among others, stories in this book include:

• The story of a pilot that managed to run his aircraft out of fuel despite one of its fuel tanks being half full.
• The successful landing of a passenger airliner following a tragic midair collision in the skies over downtown Milwaukee.
• A flight crew’s futile struggle to regain control of their aircraft during a routine evaluation flight.
• The deadly result of ice building up on the wings of a World War II era bomber belonging to the Illinois Air National Guard during its return to base.
• The crash landing successfully performed by pilots of an airliner that lost power in one of its two engines moments after taking off.
• A disaster narrowly averted when the crew of an airliner departing in heavy fog assumed their aircraft was climbing while it was actually descending towards the ground.
• A tale of two British strategic jet bombers coming to grief far away from home and some twenty years apart.
• The story of a cargo plane returning to Chicago’s Midway Airport following an engine problem that ended with catastrophic consequences to both the crew and several on the ground.
• The mysterious crash of a brand new jetliner into Lake Michigan during its approach to Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.
• The midair collision between a jetliner and a general aviation plane that resulted in the worst aircraft accident in the history of Indiana.
• The failure of government regulators to fully implement the recommendations of an aircraft manufacturer that directly contributed to the crash of an airliner into the icy waters of Lake Erie.