Congressman Lester L. Wolff, Congressional Record
Safety Last is an excellent analysis of how much safer flying could be if the FAA Performed a role of greater commitment to safety. . . . A book every member of congress should read.

From a Letter to Captain Power-Waters from John F. Leyden, President, Professional Air Traffic Controllers OrganizationFortunately, most of the flying public is unaware that many in airline management place a greater emphasis on making profits than on adhering to safety regulations. I compliment you on providing us with a damn fine insight into many of the problems that have been either overlooked or purposely evaded. I strongly concur with your book’s closing observation that the real key to airline safety must be through a better utilization of the expertise of the pilot and the controller, who know flying best. These men are indebted to you for your daring to buck the tide, and call it as you see it.

PATCO: Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization
Safety Last had done the most in the past several years to alert the public to the daily hazards in flying.

James Douglas Sparling, Director, Safety and Standards, Aircraft Mechanics Fraternal Association
Safety Last is a fascinating and sobering journey into the realities of commercial aviation. It vividly describes the hazards of non-professionalism in our industry. The reader will also see the critical importance of professional aircraft maintenance along with the need for a more imaginative and aggressive FAA establishment. . . . Captain Power-Waters has courageously assailed the FAA-approved Minimum Equipment List and exposed it for what it is . . . a killer of airline passengers.

General J.H. Doolittle, Commanding General, 8th Air Force, Leader of Tokyo Raiders, Medal of Honor Recipient
Read Safety Last with great interest, I agree with much of what you have to say. . . . We have much in common.

Reuben Robertson, III, Director of the Aviation Consumer Action Project and Aide to Ralph Nader
Safety Last by Captain Brian Power-Waters courageously describes real life in the airline industry and sounds the alarm for urgently needed reforms. It documents the abysmal performance of the Federal Aviation Administration in enforcing air safety standards and the shocking insensitivity of many airline officials. This book should be read by any airline passenger, executive, regulator or legislator who is concerned about protecting human life and safety in air travel.

From Sydney J. Harris, San Francisco Examiner
If Captain Power-Waters is right in even half the things he discloses about the dangers of commercial aviation, the airlines and the FAA deserve to be thrown in the deepest dungeon.

Saturday Review
...all the more effective for being sensible. Not recommended for in-flight reading, unless you prefer anxiety attacks to the usual bad movies.

The Observer
The airline pilot’s biggest nightmare is not hijacking, not sabotage, not even landing at a poorly-equipped airfield, but a mid-air collision with a small plane appearing from nowhere...

New York Times Book Review
Captain Power-Waters criticizes the obsessions of certain airline managements with speed in favor of safety and deplores the lack of sophisticated guidance equipment at many airports.

NY Newsday
relates that NY City’s La Guardia runways are so short pilots land and take off with no margin for error.

Rick Keir, Los Angeles Times
This book should prompt an investigation.

Pinnacle News
. . . it puts facts on paper, asks the unasked questions and gives the answers. It is intended to awaken the passenger public and hasten vital changes in the policies and practices of the Federal Aviation Administration.

Stuart Birch
. . . raises serious misgivings about priorities given to training, equipment, and the great god, Profit.

Wolverhampton Express & Star
. . . a disturbing document which shows ineptitude or mismanagement at a government level . . .

Walter Stovall, Associated Press
Captain Power-Waters says some pilots also contribute to unsafe air travel by often ignoring adverse weather conditions and mechanical defects in their aircraft to meet airline insistence that planes fly on schedule.

Aviation Daily
Captain Power-Waters states that Washington National and La Guardia airports: "Jokes!"

Washington Post
Safety Last: A reasonably safe airport is no guarantee against a careless pilot, a plane with mechanical problems, or a controller who has too much to do.

Publishers Weekly
Captain Power-Waters unloads his list of complaints against commercial aviation without hedging and draws a frightening picture of chaos, carelessness and petty internecine warfare within the industry. The literate air traveler who gets his hands on this book may want to swear off forever. . . . Captain Power-Waters hits with authority.

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Reviews:   93 Seconds to Disaster   ·   Is it Safe?   ·   Danger in the Air   ·   Margin for Error: None