The Crash of the Concorde

Six High-interest Books Sure to Intrigue Your Students Nothing captures the interest of readers like tales of heroism and tragedy. Featuring such disasters as the wreck of the now-famous fishing boat the Andrea Gail during the "perfect storm, " the nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island, and the Exxon Valdez oil spill, this new Rosen Central series is perfect for use as part of the social studies curriculum. The books illustrate the dangers to the individual and to society posed by an incomplete mastery of technology and a misplaced faith in human competence and judgment. The gripping accounts of these tragic events are supplemented with compelling narrative timelines and enthralling firsthand testimonies. Each title includes a discussion of how, in the aftermath of tragedy, changes in technology and procedure were brought about to help ensure that a similar disaster would never strike again. On July 25, 2000, the once glittering dream of commercial supersonic travel seemed to come to a fiery end as Air France Concorde Flight 4590 crashed two minutes after takeoff from Charles de Gaulle Airport outside of Paris. The planes that once carried millionaires and moguls were grounded and many people believed they would never fly again. With the help of powerful eyewitness testimony and a minute-by-minute cockpit voice recorder transcript of the flight crew's communication with air traffic control, this is the story of the birth, death, and rebirth of the Concorde.