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  • Published: 3 September 2018
  • ISBN: 9780143792741
  • Imprint: Penguin Random House Australia Audio
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 10 hr 35 min
  • Narrator: Adrian Mulraney

Fly!

The Elements of Resilience




When you need to step up, what will you do?

In 2010, thousands of feet in the air above Singapore, the 469 passengers aboard QF32 found themselves in a crisis that no one could have anticipated when the A380 in which they were flying suffered a catastrophic explosion.

Captain Richard de Crespigny and his crew confronted extraordinary challenges over the next four hours, with only three partially working engines, and a potentially explosive plane facing an imminent emergency landing. Even experienced crash-investigators later revealed they thought recovery in such circumstances was impossible. Yet in the end all aboard walked away safely.

Why was there a seemingly miraculous outcome to what could so easily have become one of the world’s worst aviation disasters? And how did the captain and his crew remain so calm in such a stressful situation? The answer is leadership, teamwork and skill.

In Fly!, Richard de Crespigny shares the insights and techniques he built up over decades in the high-pressure world of military and civilian aviation. Covering leadership, teamwork, risk-assessment, decision-making, crisis management, lifelong resilience and more, it’s a book whose wisdom can be applied to challenges and opportunities in the workplace as well as to life. Including exclusive insights from fellow hero pilot Sully Sullenberger, astronaut Neil Armstrong, NASA’s Gene Kranz and others who have, like Richard de Crespigny, succeeded under intense pressure, Fly! will enable everybody to perform at their best and to succeed in any situation.

  • Published: 3 September 2018
  • ISBN: 9780143792741
  • Imprint: Penguin Random House Australia Audio
  • Format: Audio Download
  • Length: 10 hr 35 min
  • Narrator: Adrian Mulraney

About the author

Richard de Crespigny

Melbourne born and educated, Richard Champion de Crespigny AM got his first taste of a future flying career as a 14-year-old when his father took him on a tour of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Academy at Point Cook in Victoria.

In 1975, aged seventeen, he joined the RAAF. One year later, he started flying. During his 11 years flying transport, jet and helicopter aircraft with the RAAF, he was seconded as Aide-de-Camp to two Australian Governors-General – Sir Zelman Cowen and Sir Ninian Stephen. Richard remained with the RAAF until 1986 when he joined Qantas, flying Boeing 747, Airbus A330 and A380 jet aircraft.

In 2010 he was the Captain on board Qantas flight QF32 when it suffered a catastrophic explosion. His multi-award-winning and best-selling book QF32 is a blow-by-blow story of what went right when things went wrong in the air.
Richard still flies the Airbus A380. He delivers presentations on the elements of resilience (knowledge, training, experience, teamwork, decision-making, crisis management, post-traumatic stress and risk) to governments, government agencies and Fortune 500 companies.

In the 2016 Australia Day Honours, Richard was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for his significant service to the aviation industry, both nationally and internationally, particularly to flight safety and to the community.

Richard and his wife, Coral, have two children, Alexander and Sophia.

For more information, please visit Fly-TheBook.com.

Awards & recognition

Australian Career Book Award

Finalist  •  2019  •  Australian Career Book Award