Click and Play: Challenger STS-54 L Accident Investigigation

At the end of the book McDonald has taken us on a tour de force and we are confronted with the conclusion: It is not one factor alone that triggers a catastrophe, but many factors interacting together. This is true whether the accident is big or small. Some twenty years ago I was responsible for investigating why some biomedical apparatus used on patients in hospitals sometimes caused internal damages in them, and also deaths. And the conclusion was that the accidents had many sources interacting together. The daunting task is to cast light on that part of the interaction where the mistake(s) are being made.

This work is especially critical when there is a man-machine interface, such as in NASA's Shuttle program. Allan J. McDonald has demonstrated that not only is this kind of work necessary, it is also beneficial for society as a whole; reason has limits and we must learn from our mistakes before we can proceed forward. The book is a "gold mine" for investigators within technological companies, insurance and financing, police and Government Agencies.

Click and Play

Rarely do we have access to so much credible information from a source being at the very center of the overlapping interactions, from the President of the United States, Ronald Regan and down through NASA and its main sub-contractors. And we shall never forget that we as corporations and individuals are here to serve the people, in this case the seven wonderful astronauts - who were overshadowed and sacrificed on that cold morning January 28, 1986.

I had no problems reading McDonald's investigative book. However, on the middle of page 465 I had to close the book for a while and take a pause. "Jane Smith, widow of Challenger Pilot Michael Smith, was very upset by what she had observed from the publicly televised hearings of the Roger Commission. She had also learned that the astronauts really had survived the explosion and had not been killed instantly as NASA first reported.

Close examination of the flight films revealed the crew cabin separating intact from the rest of the orbiter after the explosion. People interested in or working with the subject "parallel and overlapping scenarios" should definitely buy this book; it's a gem! Author Allan J. McDonalds unique perspective makes this book required reading for researchers interested in the complexity of the Challenger catastrophe and its consequences.