John J. Nance (born July 5, 1946) is an American pilot, attorney, aviation and healthcare safety analyst, and author.

Biography

Nance was born and raised in

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...

, and graduated from the

St. Mark's School of Texas The St. Mark's School of Texas is a nonsectarian preparatory day school for boys in grades 1–12 in Dallas, Texas, United States, accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest. History St. Mark's traces its origins to the T ...

. He earned Bachelor of Arts and Juris Doctor degrees from

Southern Methodist University , mottoeng = " The truth will make you free" , established = , type = Private research university , accreditation = SACS , academic_affiliations = , religious_affiliation = United Methodist Church , president = R. Gerald Turner , p ...

and Dedman School of Law. Nance served in the

United States Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Si ...

as a pilot during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

and in

Operation Desert Storm Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Ma ...

in Iraq. He was a

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colon ...

with the

Air Force Reserve The Air Force Reserve Command (AFRC) is a major command (MAJCOM) of the United States Air Force, with its headquarters at Robins Air Force Base, Georgia. It is the federal Air Reserve Component (ARC) of the U.S. Air Force, consisting of comm ...

. In January 1995, he joined ''

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast '' ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include morning news-talk show '' Good Morning America'', '' ...

'' as an aviation analyst, reporting on ''

Good Morning America ''Good Morning America'' (often abbreviated as ''GMA'') is an American morning television program that is broadcast on ABC. It debuted on November 3, 1975, and first expanded to weekends with the debut of a Sunday edition on January 3, 1993. ...

'' and '' World News Tonight''. Before ABC, Nance had worked for three years at WFAA radio in Dallas, Texas. He has also appeared on over 1,300 radio and television shows, including '' The MacNeil–Lehrer Report,

Oprah Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', b ...

'' and ''

Larry King Live ''Larry King Live'' was an American television talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was the channel's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly. Mainly aired from CNN's Los Angeles ...

''. Nance is also a ''New York Times'' best-selling author. Two of Nance's books, ''

Pandora's Clock ''Pandora's Clock'' (also known as ''Doomsday Virus'') is a 1996 NBC miniseries based on a novel by John J. Nance about a deadly virus on a Boeing 747-200 from Frankfurt to John F. Kennedy International Airport. Directed by Eric Laneuville, ...

'' and ''Medusa's Child'', were adapted and broadcast as a four-hour television miniseries for NBC and ABC. Nance is the author of ''Why Hospitals Should Fly: The Ultimate Flight Plan to Patient Safety and Quality Care'' and ''Charting the Course: Launching Patient-Centric Healthcare''. These books apply the principles learned in aviation to healthcare and patient safety. Nance is the originator of the ''Red Cover Reports'', a series of accident and incident analyses and recommendations using the principles of the

National Transportation Safety Board The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is an independent U.S. government investigative agency responsible for civil transportation accident investigation. In this role, the NTSB investigates and reports on aviation accidents and inci ...

accident reports colloquially known as "Blue Covers". The ''Red Cover Reports'' provide a neutral source of in-depth analysis of healthcare harm to caregivers and patients, including the 440,000 deaths due to medical error. Also, as a former

Braniff Airlines Braniff Airways, Inc., operated as Braniff International Airways from 1948 until 1965, and then Braniff International from 1965 until air operations ceased, was an airline in the United States that once flew air carrier operations from 1928 un ...

pilot, Nance authored ''A Splash of Colors: The Self-Destruction of Braniff International''. As of 2022, he has appeared on 18 episodes of ''

Mayday Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications. It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiz ...

'' as an aviation expert. Nance lives in

University Place, Washington University Place is a city in Pierce County, Washington, United States. Its population was 34,866 at the 2020 census. Based on per capita income, University Place ranks 81st of 522 areas in the state of Washington to be ranked. History Universi ...

, south of

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region o ...

.John J. Nance , Official Publisher Page , Simon & Schuster UK
Retrieved 2018-12-15.

Books

Fiction

* ''Final Approach'' (1990) * ''Scorpion Strike'' (1992) * ''Phoenix Rising'' (1993) * ''Pandora's Clock'' (1995) * ''Medusa's Child'' (1997) * ''The Last Hostage'' (1998) * ''Blackout'' (2000) * ''Headwind'' (2001) * ''Turbulence'' (2002) * ''Skyhook'' (2003) * ''Fire Flight'' (2003) * ''Saving Cascadia'' (2005) * ''Orbit'' (2006) * ''Lockout'' (2016) * ''16 Souls'' (2017)

Non-fiction

* ''Splash of Colors: The Self-Destruction of Braniff International'' (1984) * ''Blind Trust: The Revolution in Aviation Safety — Coming to Grips with Human Failure'' (1986) * ''On Shaky Ground'' (1988) * ''What Goes Up: The Global Assault on Our Atmosphere'' (1991) * ''Golden Boy: The Harold Simmons Story'' (2003) * ''Why Hospitals Should Fly: The Ultimate Flight Plan to Patient Safety and Quality Care'' (2008) * ''Charting the Course: Launching Patient-Centric Healthcare'' (2012)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nance, John J. 1946 births Living people Southern Methodist University alumni United States Air Force officers United States Air Force personnel of the Vietnam War United States Air Force personnel of the Gulf War American aviators 20th-century American novelists 21st-century American novelists American male novelists Military personnel from Dallas Dedman School of Law alumni Aviation analysts People from University Place, Washington 20th-century American male writers 21st-century American male writers