John J Nance Books in Order

An insider chronicle of Braniff International Airways, this book traces the airline's bold marketing, design, and rapid expansion, then shows how debt, deregulation, and boardroom missteps pushed a once glamorous carrier into bankruptcy and left thousands of employees suddenly grounded.

Looking at the years after airline deregulation, Nance argues that relentless cost cutting and human error have eroded safety margins in the cockpit and on the ground. Through vivid crash reconstructions he urges stronger oversight and crew resource management to keep complex systems from failing.

Blending narrative reporting with science, this book surveys major earthquakes around the world, the rise of modern seismology, and the hidden faults beneath American cities, warning that much of the country faces a devastating quake and outlining what preparedness would actually look like.

During a stormy night at Kansas City International Airport, a North America Airlines jet collides on the runway with another aircraft, killing more than a hundred people. National Transportation Safety Board investigator Joe Wallingford sifts through wreckage, politics, and hints of secret radar tests to learn what really went wrong.

This nonfiction investigation explains how chlorofluorocarbons, greenhouse gases, and other pollutants are changing the atmosphere, combining portraits of scientists with clear descriptions of ozone depletion and global warming, and arguing that waiting for absolute certainty is itself a dangerous policy.

When Iraqi scientist Shakir Abbas defects with proof of a new bioweapon, Air Force colonel Will Westerman leads a mission to destroy the virus at its desert lab. Mechanical failures, missing vials, and a crash landing leave him, his crew, and Abbas racing across hostile territory to stop a man made plague.

Brilliant investment banker Elizabeth Sterling is hired to save a young airline whose finances and operations are mysteriously unraveling. Working with chief pilot Brian Murphy and retired tycoon Creighton MacRae, she uncovers deliberate sabotage and a global financial play aimed at seizing control of US commercial aviation.

On a flight from Frankfurt to New York, wildlife filmmaker Ernest Helms collapses from a mysterious infection that may be a man made supervirus. As governments around the world refuse landing permission, Captain James Holland's 747 becomes a flying pariah while political agendas compete with the passengers' odds of survival.

Cargo pilot Scott McKay discovers that one of his shipments is an experimental hydrogen bomb wired to unleash a massive electromagnetic pulse across the United States. Trapped between a monster hurricane and conflicting orders from Washington, his small crew must decide how far they are willing to go to prevent national catastrophe.

Pilot Ken Wolfe secretly hijacks his own jet, demanding justice from the attorney general nominee he blames for his daughter's murder. Rookie FBI negotiator and psychologist Kat Bronsky boards the aircraft and must calm 130 passengers while uncovering the old crime that pushed a grieving father past the brink.

After a SeaAir MD 11 mysteriously crashes in Cuban waters and its black boxes are erased, FBI agent Kat Bronsky hears of a murdered source tied to the case. When another airliner is flash blinded in midair, she and reporter Robert McCabe race to expose a plot that could bring down an entire fleet.

Airline captain Craig Dayton learns that one of his passengers, former US president John Harris, faces arrest and likely execution under an international torture treaty if he lands in Europe. Dayton launches an unauthorized escape flight while lawyers and diplomats fight to find any country willing to grant safe harbor.

On Meridian Flight Six, years of cost cutting and contempt for passengers have pushed tempers to the edge. When Captain Phil Knight makes a panicked emergency landing in war torn Nigeria, a passenger mutiny collides with NATO and CIA fears that the silent jet is a terrorist weapon.

Veteran pilot Clark Maxwell returns to the punishing world of aerial firefighting when twin infernos threaten Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Flying aging tankers into brutal turbulence, he begins to suspect that cut corners or deliberate sabotage are turning a bad season into something far worse.

This authorized biography follows Texas investor Harold Simmons from a childhood in a small town without plumbing to the top ranks of American finance, tracing how he used meticulous deal making, leverage, and sharp instincts to build a controversial multibillion dollar empire.

Skyhook, a secret computer system meant to save crippled airliners, goes disastrously wrong during a test over the Gulf of Alaska. As designer Ben Cole tracks a saboteur and April Rosen fights to clear her pilot father, they uncover a dangerous agenda behind the project.

Seismologist Doug Lam has warned that construction on tiny Cascadia Island could trigger a catastrophic quake and tsunami. When his predictions start coming true during a resort's grand opening, he and helicopter operator Jennifer Lindstrom race bad weather and limited aircraft to evacuate hundreds before the island collapses.

Winning a contest seat on a commercial spacecraft is a midlife dream for Kip Dawson until a micrometeoroid kills the pilot and strands him alone in orbit. As he records his final thoughts on a laptop, the world watches and scrambles to mount a risky rescue.

Through the fictional St. Michael's Memorial Hospital and its staff, this book uses story to show how aviation style safety principles, teamwork, and just culture can transform healthcare into a coherent system that dramatically reduces preventable harm.

A follow up to Why Hospitals Should Fly, this narrative visits a struggling Las Vegas hospital as leaders and frontline staff follow Dr. Will Jenkins through painful setbacks and reforms, showing in concrete detail how to build truly patient centric, high reliability care.

Over the Atlantic, the computers of Pangia Flight 10 quietly seize control, turning the airliner back toward the Middle East and locking out the pilots. As governments fear a provocation that could trigger nuclear war, the crew and world leaders race to regain control before fuel runs out.

During a blizzard departure from Denver, Captain Marty Mitchell's 757 overruns a commuter jet that ends up stuck on his wing. His split second decision in the air later lands him in court, where an ambitious prosecutor and a young defense lawyer fight over his future.