A local author’s latest book is taking on the stories associated with famous deaths in air crashes.
Fatal Flights of the Rich and Famous is Alastair Goodrum’s ninth book about aviation.
Having retired from IT and telecommunications, he has been fascinated by aircraft since his father took him to the Farnborough Air Show in 1954.
His latest book is being published by Pen and Sword Aviation.
A spokesman for them said: “What does a mild-mannered Swedish diplomat have in common with a debonaire English Formula One World Champion?
“The answer is that they and 23 prominent international celebrities, died in aeroplane accidents between 1919 and 2020, at the height of their fame and often in mysterious circumstances.
“This book brings together the stories of celebrity air accident victims from a wide spectrum of genres, explaining how they became famous and then, despite wealth and fame – or perhaps because of it – how their lives at the top of the tree became fragile, vulnerable and ultimately doomed.
“Previously unpublished information sheds new light on their fascinating stories, dispelling some of the myths and mysteries surrounding their lives and deaths.
“Each story outlines a rise to world fame leading, inexorably, to the climax of each untimely death in an aeroplane incident – often in suspicious or mysterious circumstances for which no explanation has yet been found.
“These celebrities from across the world are bound together by an intriguing set of human-interest factors: ambition, bravery, carelessness, conspiracy, danger, determination, enterprise, exploitation; failure – technical and human, greed, mystery – and large doses of ‘press-on-itis’!
“Running through all these stories are two strands: great lives lived to the full and great lives lost prematurely.”
