The most recommended books about airplane crashes

Who picked these books? Meet our 17 experts.

17 authors created a book list connected to airplane crashes, and here are their favorite airplane crash books.
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Book cover of Flight MH370: The Mystery

Jane Finch Author Of The Black Widows

From my list on based on actual facts more bizarre than fiction.

Why am I passionate about this?

Jane Finch lives in Norfolk, England and is married with one son. Jane has travelled extensively and has also lived in Canada, Spain, and the Caribbean. Having spent over twenty-five years working in English Law, Jane decided to try her hand at writing crime thrillers. Her first novel, Due Process, is based in her hometown in Norfolk. Her book, The Black Widows, published by Solstice Publishing, reached the top ten of Amazon’s crime thriller list. Jane is a member of International Thriller Writers Inc. Now retired, Jane is free to write full-time, when inspired to do so, although she says, None of my friends tell me anything anymore because they know I’ll write about it!”

Jane's book list on based on actual facts more bizarre than fiction

Jane Finch Why did Jane love this book?

A mystery that confounds the world. How can a flight completely disappear? There are several conspiracy theories and ideas but the truth is – no one really knows what happened and probably never will. This book sets out the facts and leaves the reader to decide and it will have you mulling over the endless possibilities. The facts are troubling and the theories continue. Every time I board a plane I think of Flight MH370 and what those passengers must have endured. Bad enough as fiction but to realise it’s true is devastating.

By Nigel Cawthorne,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Flight MH370 as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

On 8 March, 00:41, Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 took off from Kuala Lumpur International Airport. At 01:19, the pilot bid air traffic control 'good night'. Two minutes later, the plane and its 227 passengers vanished from the skies. No trace has been found. The disappearance of flight MH370 has horrified people across the globe. In an age where a stolen smartphone can be pinpointed to any location on earth, the vanishing of a cruise liner and 227 passengers is the greatest mystery since the Mary Celeste. Experienced author and journalist Nigel Cawthorne has researched the case with incredible thoroughness, revealing…


Book cover of The Passenger

Lee Polevoi Author Of The Confessions of Gabriel Ash

From Lee's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Writer History buff Avid reader Swimmer

Lee's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Lee Polevoi Why did Lee love this book?

The Passenger, Cormac McCarthy’s last novel (along with Stella Maris, a companion volume), contains writing as good as anything in his long career.

Bobby Western is a math savant, ex-race car driver, and (currently) deep-sea salvage diver. After diving to inspect a private plane submerged in the waters off the Louisiana coast, Bobby becomes embroiled in a life-and-death conspiracy; he’s also obsessed with the memory of his sister Alicia, another genius savant whose suicide opens the novel.

Some sections of The Passenger are over-the-top (extended bar-room monologues, Alicia’s cartoonish hallucinations) but the world McCarthy creates is deeply compelling and suggests great profundity lurking just beneath the surface. A hell of a way to close out a brilliant career.

By Cormac McCarthy,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked The Passenger as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Road returns with the first of a two-volume masterpiece: The Passenger is the story of a salvage diver, haunted by loss, afraid of the watery deep, pursued for a conspiracy beyond his understanding, and longing for a death he cannot reconcile with God.

A NEW YORK TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

“McCarthy returns with a one-two punch...a welcome return from a legend." —Esquire

Look for Stella Maris, the second volume in The Passenger series.

1980, PASS CHRISTIAN, MISSISSIPPI: It is three in the morning when Bobby Western…


Book cover of A Missing Plane

Joy Neal Kidney Author Of What Leora Never Knew: A Granddaughter's Quest for Answers

From my list on research of World War II casualties.

Why am I passionate about this?

I'm the oldest granddaughter of Leora, who lost three sons during WWII. To learn what happened to them, I studied casualty and missing aircraft reports, missions reports, and read unit histories. I’ve corresponded with veterans who knew one of the brothers, who witnessed the bomber hit the water off New Guinea, and who accompanied one brother’s body home. I’m still in contact with the family members of two crew members on the bomber. The companion book, Leora’s Letters, is the family story of the five Wilson brothers who served, but only two came home.

Joy's book list on research of World War II casualties

Joy Neal Kidney Why did Joy love this book?

The B-25 of one Wilson brother was lost off New Guinea. This book is about the location and recovery of the remains of 22 men lost with a B-24 in New Guinea in 1944. Fascinating but tedious forensic work identified all 22 men.

Part I tells about bird hunters in Papua New Guinea finding remains of a large plane in 1980 and about Bruce Hoy, the first curator of the Aviation Maritime and War Branch of the National Museum and Art Gallery of Papua New Guinea, who was obsessed with finding the remains of about 350 aircraft downed there between 1942 and 1945. A team, including the two bird hunters, located and identified the B-24, mapping out an area to begin identifying the human remains and artifacts with X-numbers. The pilot was from Iowa.

This book is historically valuable but also a poignant human story.

By Susan Sheehan,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked A Missing Plane as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

An in-depth account of the discovery of a crashed American bomber missing for thirty-eight years and the painstaking identification of the plane's passengers


Book cover of His Majesty's Airship: The Life and Tragic Death of the World's Largest Flying Machine

John J. Geoghegan Author Of When Giants Ruled the Sky: The Brief Reign and Tragic Demise of the American Rigid Airship

From John's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Journalist Airship enthusiast White elephant technology expert Editor

John's 3 favorite reads in 2023

John J. Geoghegan Why did John love this book?

Few Americans are aware of the grandiose ambitions of Great Britain’s Imperial Airship Scheme or its tragic consequences.

Gwynne does a terrific job recapturing all the glamour and folly involved in this important but little-known undertaking. Designed to connect England’s major colonies, including Canada, Africa, Australia, and India, by regularly scheduled airship travel, the Imperial Airship schemed resulted in two gigantic, big-rigid airships: the R100 and R101. One set out and successfully completed a transatlantic trip to Canada and back, promising great things to come, while her sister ship embarked on a voyage from England to India a few months later with Titanic-like consequences.

Reads like an aerial Poseidon Adventure, only it’s all true. Comes with my money-back-guarantee of satisfaction!

By S C Gwynne,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked His Majesty's Airship as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

From the bestselling author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist Empire of the Summer Moon comes a stunning historical tale of the rise and fall of the world’s largest airship—and the doomed love story between an ambitious British officer and a married Romanian Princess at its heart.

The tragic story of the British airship R101—which went down in a spectacular hydrogen-fueled fireball in 1930, killing more people than died in the Hindenburg disaster seven years later—has been largely forgotten. In His Majesty’s Airship, historian S.C. Gwynne resurrects it in vivid detail, telling the epic story of great ambition gone terribly wrong.…


Book cover of Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors

Vanessa Lee Author Of High Rise

From my list on celebrating the bravery of everyday heroes.

Why am I passionate about this?

I am an Australian writer living in Europe. Returning to my hometown on the East Coast of Australia post-COVID, I confronted relentless rain and king tides threatening the beach promenade cafes. Witnessing the potential demise of these familiar spots sparked the idea for my novel. Opening with a dystopian scene of future tourists exploring submerged coastal cafes with snorkels, my work delves into the realm of "cli-fi" (climate fiction). Against the backdrop of imminent climate danger, my characters, a lovable yet obstinate Australian ensemble, navigate a world profoundly altered by the impacts of climate change. I hope what I have written is an exaggeration. I fear it may not be.

Vanessa's book list on celebrating the bravery of everyday heroes

Vanessa Lee Why did Vanessa love this book?

I first heard about this story of extraordinary heroism while listening to a podcast interview with one of the survivors of a plane crash in 1972.

The plane was carrying an entire football team and their families between Uruguay and Chile. A search party could not find them in the icy ridges of the Andes, and it came down to two of the survivors who, despite malnutrition and the extreme weather and terrain, made a days-long trek to find help. Thanks to them, the remaining survivors could be located and rescued.

While many readers might shudder at the lengths the group went to in order to survive (cannibalism), what shone for me was the selflessness of the two survivors who trekked for days to find help.

By Piers Paul Read,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Alive as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

On October 12, 1972, a plane carrying a team of young rugby players crashed into the remote, snow-peaked Andes. Out of the forty-five original passengers and crew, only sixteen made it off the mountain alive. For ten excruciating weeks they suffered deprivations beyond imagining, confronting nature head-on at its most furious and inhospitable. And to survive, they were forced to do what would have once been unthinkable ...

This is their story -- one of the most astonishing true adventures of the twentieth century.


Book cover of Dear Edward

Mary Helen Sheriff Author Of Boop and Eve's Road Trip

From Mary Helen's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Marketer Teacher Coach Traveler

Mary Helen's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Mary Helen Sheriff Why did Mary Helen love this book?

Napolitano puts words together so beautifully that sometimes I had to pause the audiobook so I could take a minute to reflect on and admire her turns of phrase. Sometimes writing like that can get bogged down, but that isn’t the case with this book.

The variety of characters and voices and the toying with the timeline kept me intrigued and wanting more. Though the story is tragic, the themes of love, friendship, and hope resonate. 

By Ann Napolitano,

Why should I read it?

6 authors picked Dear Edward as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

A transcendent coming-of-age story about the ways a broken heart learns to love again.

One summer morning, a flight takes off from New York to Los Angeles: there are 192 people aboard. When the plane suddenly crashes, twelve-year-old Edward Adler is the sole survivor.

In the aftermath, Edward struggles to make sense of his grief, sudden fame and find his place in a world without his family. But then Edward and his neighbour Shay make a startling discovery; hidden in his uncle's garage are letters from the relatives of other passengers - all addressed him.…


Book cover of The Devil's Sea

Tony Dellamarco Author Of Beneath the Dragon's Triangle

From my list on written by science fiction masters.

Why am I passionate about this?

As an engineer and a science teacher I am passionate about science and science fiction stories. I also enjoy adventures. Together these lifelong passions led me to write my first science fiction novel. I have years of technological and educational training. My first job was with IBM where I worked in the Quality Control and Engineering departments. Throughout my life, I’ve been an avid sportsman and have trained in powerlifting and a variety of martial arts. When I’m not writing or conjuring science fiction novels, I enjoy teaching my grandchildren how to drive my tractor while working the fields around my home in the Hudson Valley.

Tony's book list on written by science fiction masters

Tony Dellamarco Why did Tony love this book?

Clive Cussler is one of the few authors whose real-life adventures paralleled that of his action hero, Dirk Pitt, creating a compelling story. It is easier to convey an adventure story if you have actually lived it. I was humbled by an editorial review and a number of readers that stated my book is reminiscent of Clive Cussler’s works.

By Dirk Cussler,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked The Devil's Sea as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

Fearless adventurer Dirk Pitt must unravel a historical mystery of epic importance in the latest novel in the beloved New York Times bestselling series created by the “grand master of adventure” Clive Cussler.

In 1959 Tibet, a Buddhist artifact of immense importance was seemingly lost to history in the turmoil of the Communist takeover. But when National Underwater and Marine Agency Director Dirk Pitt discovers a forgotten plane crash in the Philippine Sea over 60 years later, new clues emerge to its hidden existence.
 
But Pitt and his compatriot Al Giordino have larger worries when they are ordered to recover…


Book cover of Miracle in the Andes: 72 Days on the Mountain and My Long Trek Home

Grace Ly Author Of Tent for Seven: A Camping Adventure Gone South Out West

From my list on appreciating common comforts.

Why am I passionate about this?

I have hiked mountains in North Korea, slept outside in the Sahara Desert, ridden elephants in Thailand, dogsledded across the Arctic Circle, ridden camels through the Gobi Desert, floated in the Dead Sea, run with the bulls in Spain, hang glided over New Zealand, explored the Cu Chi tunnels in Vietnam, visited Buddhist temples in South Korea, and caught a glimpse of Nessie while on a boat ride around Loch Ness. I’ve spent most of my career working with the military. I also accepted a presidential appointment at the White House and served as an undercover officer for the Central Intelligence Agency.

Grace's book list on appreciating common comforts

Grace Ly Why did Grace love this book?

This book is very disturbing. Well, not the book, but the behavior of the survivors. I felt like I was reading about some sick psychological test in human behavior and the results were troubling.

I just can’t get over the fact that the majority of the survivors chose to stay put and eat the bodies of their dead friends instead of trying to get help. The decisions these survivors made will haunt me for a long time. I cannot help but wonder what choices I would have made, and I pray to God I will never find out. 

By Nando Parrado, Vince Rause,

Why should I read it?

2 authors picked Miracle in the Andes as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In October 1972, Nando Parrado and his rugby club teammates were on a flight from Uruguay to Chile when their plane crashed into a mountain. Miraculously, many of the passengers survived but Nando's mother and sister died and he was unconscious for three days.

Stranded more than 11,000 feet up in the wilderness of the Andes, the survivors soon heard that the search for them had been called off - and realise the only food for miles around was the bodies of their dead friends ...

In a last desperate bid for safety, Nando and a teammate set off in…


Book cover of All Fall Down

James Tarr Author Of Bestiarii

From my list on technically accurate thrillers.

Why am I passionate about this?

For people who know something about a technical field, there is nothing that can ruin a book or movie faster than inaccuracies about that field. I’ve worked as an armored car driver, police officer, and private investigator in and around Detroit, and have been writing for outdoor magazines for close to twenty years, so not only do I know a lot about the featured subjects/characters of most thrillers, I care about how accurately they’re portrayed, and have brought that passion to my writing. I’ve written five thrillers set in Detroit, many of them featuring a private investigator, and when writing Bestiarii and its sequels did extensive research on dinosaurs.

James' book list on technically accurate thrillers

James Tarr Why did James love this book?

This novel, released in 1994, was one of The New York Times’ Notable Books of the Year, but these days, unfortunately few people have heard of it. 

A thriller about a terrorist holding the entire American air traffic control system hostage, this novel stood out because of how accurate all the details of the U.S. ATC were—details Gruenfeld had become aware of while pursuing a pilot’s license. 

Rush Limbaugh, an avid fan of aviation, raved about the book on his #1 rated radio show, and that’s where I heard about it.

By Lee Gruenfeld,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked All Fall Down as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

After the near-crash of a passenger plane, the responsible party demands five million in cash to prevent worse accidents, and former NTSB investigator and Naval officer Jack Webster and combat pilot Bo Kincaid are partnered to investigate--if they can trust each other


Book cover of Cold Snap

Rod Miller Author Of All My Sins Remembered

From Rod's 3 favorite reads in 2023.

Why am I passionate about this?

Author Reader Writer Westerner Curious Curmudgeon

Rod's 3 favorite reads in 2023

Rod Miller Why did Rod love this book?

Marc Cameron has a way of intertwining the specific details of law enforcement—gained from personal experience—with compelling, exciting, page-turning, nail-biting stories featuring Deputy US Marshal Arliss Cutter. Cutter’s assignment in Alaska finds him fighting crime in harsh and forbidding environments.

In Cold Snap, the hunt for a serial killer in Anchorage and a doomed prison transport from the far north prove connected as Cutter is stranded in a frozen wilderness with violent and murderous convicts, complicated by marauding wolves and bears. Besides all that, a storm rolls in that’s so cold and violent it can freeze your fingers to the pages.

By Marc Cameron,

Why should I read it?

1 author picked Cold Snap as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.

What is this book about?

In Alaska, nature can be cruel... but human nature is crueler.

After an early spring thaw on the Alaskan coast, Anchorage police discover a gruesome new piece of evidence in their search for a serial killer - a dismembered human foot.

In the remote northern town of Deadhorse, Deputy US Marshal Arliss Cutter escorts four very dangerous handcuffed prisoners onto a small bush plane. He's expecting a routine mission and a nonstop flight... But everything goes wrong.

When the plane goes down in the wilderness, all hell breaks loose. The prisoners murder the pilot and a guard and torch the…