Highly-regarded aviation safety author Macarthur ‘Mac’ Job died on Wednesday after battling cancer for a number of years, aged 88.
A contributor to Australian Aviation over many years, Mac was perhaps best known as the author of the world-renowned Air Crash and Air Disaster book series (published between 1991 and 2001). He began his writing career in the mid-1960s as editor of the then Department of Civil Aviation’s Aviation Safety Digest publication (which in 1972 was awarded the Flight Safety Foundation’s prestigious ‘Publication of the Year’ award), while from the late 1970s he was editor of Australian aviation industry magazine Aircraft (now Aviation Business). In more recent years Mac wrote a number of aviation titles and was a contributor to Aero Australia magazine.
Mac was awarded the Order of Australia Medal in 2003 for “services to the promotion of aviation safety”. Other awards included a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ from the National Aviation Press Club (NAPC) in 2007, and in 1997 both the Aviation Safety Foundation of Australia’s ‘Aviation Safety Award‘ for “aviation safety excellence” in the ground support category and AOPA’s ‘Bill Adams Trophy’ for ”the most outstanding contribution to aviation by an AOPA member”.
Mac’s NAPC award citation highlighted: “one of the quiet achievers in journalism and a person who has dedicated his considerable writing and flying skills to furthering the cause of air safety”. It also noted that: “Mac’s ability to analyse and dissect accidents in language that pilots understand is a great gift. And Mac is no desk jockey either: his logbook includes hours flown for the Flying Doctor in South Australia and with the Missionary Fellowship in Papua New Guinea.”
