“Twenty-six seconds. Twenty-six seconds after which the magnificent and boisterous beating of Cesare’s heart was forever muffled into a silence that now echoes across my every dark, dark night. Twenty-six seconds that thrust my life into a tailspin and launched me on a quest for the truth. I vow to find out what really happened in those twenty-six seconds if it takes every second I have left on earth.”
That’s a short excerpt from Rossana D’Antonio’s new book ’26 Seconds: Grief and Blame in the Aftermath of Losing My Brother in a Plane Crash’ (out May 13, 2025, She Writes Press). Part memoir, part exposé, ’26 Seconds’ interweaves Rossana’s research regarding other parallel accidents with her own story.
On May 30, 2008, Rossana was on vacation with her husband in Spain when she saw it reported on the news. Her brother, Cesare, a pilot for South & Central America’s TACA Airlines, was in a plane crash. There was a tropical storm, the plane overshot the tarmac at Honduras’s notoriously difficult Toncontín Airport, and Cesare—laughing, friendly, full-of-life Cesare—was dead on impact.
Rossana, an engineer based out of California, funneled her grief into action. Knowing from past incidents that the airlines and other people in charge would likely want to lay blame solely at the feet of the pilot, Rossana dedicated herself to clearing her brother’s name.
Six months after the TACA crash, Captain Sully Sullenberger lands his plane on the Hudson River. Although authorities call his landing a miracle, they also blame him for its necessity. One year after the TACA 390 tragedy, Air France 447 falls from the sky. Again, pilot error.
As Rossana digs deeper, she exposes a culture that is too quick to conclude pilot error and an industry that experiences systemic weaknesses, chooses profits over safety, lies to its customers, and is willing to risk lives to get its planes back up in the sky. Ultimately, she uncovers the smoking gun she’s been looking for—revealing the truth about TACA 390, exposing aviation cover-ups, and challenging us all to question the very systems we’ve been told we can trust with our lives.
“For pilots,” Rossana writes, “a legacy can be built or destroyed in a few final seconds.” In her new book, Rossana looks into other airline accidents as well as the ongoing whistleblowing on Boeing.
Rossana has continued her passionate outreach on behalf of airline safety, and in 2024 went to DC to talk to legislators to help pass a bill for aviation safety and infrastructure—the FAA Reauthorization Bill, which has been signed into law. Her book is especially relevant with the number of fatal aviation accidents that have recently occurred in the US. We had the chance to dive deeper into her story, her research, and the heartfelt advocacy she continues to do on behalf of her beloved brother upon the release of ’26 Seconds. Scroll below to read!
What was it like to write this book, and relive the experience you went through starting with learning about your brother’s death?
I had so much going on in my head about this personal tragedy. The first drafts were essentially a grief memoir. For someone with a keen ability to step outside myself and analyze a situation objectively, distancing myself from a personal crisis, it was these early drafts that I struggled with.
Reliving the experience was definitely painful. Forcing myself to venture through the stages of grief and struggling to find the words to describe these raw emotions was indescribable. I didn’t realize it at the time, but the process was also very cathartic.
How did your engineer expertise enable you to realize that the information you were given about the plane crash was not completely accurate or honest?
As a civil engineer, my mission has always been to protect and safeguard the health, safety, and welfare of the public. Additionally, as a public servant, I’ve spent my entire professional career ensuring safe infrastructure design to the communities I’ve served. In my experience, it is not a coincidence when infrastructure is conducive to a large number of accidents or deaths. These incidents are blaring alarms that there is something about that structure that is not safe. It is irresponsible to ignore the obvious and continue to blame human error.
Toncontin International Airport was a notoriously dangerous airport that had witnessed 9 accidents in a span of 45 years with hundreds of lives lost. Due to the complexity of the airport that included mountainous surroundings, a short runway, and a lack of any safety improvements in decades, pilots in command were required to undergo additional training and higher-level certification in order to land and takeoff from that facility.
All of this was further exacerbated when faulty construction operations on the runway resulted in aircraft hydroplaning when landing under wet conditions. Pilots had expressed concern about the safety of the runway just months prior to the crash in anticipation of the rainy season. Yet, in the end, the airline lay all the blame on Cesare’s decision to land the plane on that day. My concerns were further confirmed when the investigation report was never released which to me screamed of a cover up.
Why was it important to you to investigate the event and clear your brother’s name?
For years, the aviation industry has blamed pilots for 70 percent of airplane crashes. This statistic blew my mind. It’s an overly simplistic conclusion that deflects the focus away from existing safety gaps in a very complex aviation system.
This blame game was even evident in the case of Captain “Sully” Sullenberger who landed his plane on the Hudson River saving 155 lives, just six months after the TACA 390 crash. Although authorities called his landing a miracle, they also blamed him for landing on the river instead of returning to the airport.
Fortunately, Sully survived his crash and was able to advocate for himself and proved the investigators wrong. But often the pilot is one of many victims. I feared that Cesare would be made a scapegoat, and I needed to advocate for him since he was no longer able to do so.
What were some of the most shocking or eye-opening things you uncovered during your investigation, that readers will get to learn about in your book?
I discovered the smoking gun about TACA 390, a cover up fueled by corporate greed. But more shockingly, I discovered a much bigger story. My research revealed the egregious cover up, alarming safety gaps, and faulty infrastructure designs that led to the TACA 390 tragedy were not outliers but are indicative of a systemic problem in an aviation industry at a global level.
Sadly, in the last few years, my research has been confirmed with even more events such as the egregious Boeing 737 MAX debacle when two planes crashed within a few months of each other. More recently, we’ve witnessed the recent catastrophic mid-air collision at Reagan National Airport and a rash of near misses at several major airports throughout the country.
Today, there have been a lot of conversations about airline safety in light of recent plane crashes and the firing of multiple airline safety personnel when Trump took office. What has been your perspective or reaction to this ongoing conversation, in light of your family’s experience?
The Trump Administration layoffs seem to have been made haphazardly based on a shift against DEI policies. In other words, underrepresented individuals were targeted and let go under the misguided assumption that they have substandard skills. The FAA has many problems, but DEI is not one of them.
In the last several years, the FAA prioritized growth of aviation business interests over safety regulation often relinquishing its regulatory duties, as was the case with Boeing in the manufacturing of the 737 MAX aircraft. The FAA has earned a reputation as a “tombstone agency” because it has historically failed to address safety concerns until there was a tragic loss of lives.
In addition to this there is a critical shortage of air traffic controllers that has resulted in having them work erratic schedules and ungodly overtime hours adding stress to an already stressful job. Finally, the agency is operating with outdated technology which further constrains existing staff.
If anything, the federal government should be shoring up the agency with adequate resources—staffing, technology, and robust budgets. We should be demanding the FAA creates a culture where safety is paramount and is its North Star.
Given your advocacy around airline safety legislation, can you give us an overview of what is at stake when safety protocols are not properly in place, or when leadership overlooks safety measures in airline infrastructure?
The aviation system is very complex. It consists of aircraft manufacturers, airlines which run the daily operations, maintenance requirements, regulator oversight, infrastructure, and consumers who trust that everyone is doing their job properly. Each one of these components consists of employees, policies, protocols, and cultures of their own. And all these components of this very complex system, that is aviation, must work perfectly each and every takeoff, each and every landing. Legislation must focus on safety as it relates to each one of these components but also the interconnectedness of all these components.
Recently, we’ve seen a rash of aviation mishaps that indicate an industry under strain. We learned of the faulty designs in 737 MAX aircraft that resulted in hundreds of deaths, well-known flawed designs that Boeing covered up as they gave in to pressures from Wall Street. In an attempt to get the planes back in the sky as quickly as possible, airlines have deferred maintenance tasks resulting in plane parts falling from the skies.
The FAA has also been known to relinquish its regulatory responsibilities by exercising a tombstone mentality, taking action only after a tragedy, leaving me wondering why it takes so much bloodshed to trigger safety regulations.
And finally, I am well aware of the lack of investments in aviation infrastructure. The aviation system is screaming for attention to tend to these safety gaps. If not addressed in a timely manner, we will witness another tragedy like the recent mid-air collision between American Airlines 5342 and the Black Hawk military helicopter over the Potomac River, a predictable and preventable tragedy that never should have happened.
After all, there had been 85 near misses at this same location and no action had been taken until now. This is unforgivable.
During the process of your investigation of your brother’s plane crash, what did you discover about yourself, your resilience and how grief can impact people in different ways?
I am an engineer, a problem solver. But I quickly learned that overcoming grief is not a problem you technically solve. Regardless, I immersed myself in obsessive research and somehow that gave me a reason to get out of bed every morning. Suddenly, I had a purpose.
My mission evolved into writing the book to expose the truth. And after that, I focused on advocating at the highest levels in government for aviation safety so that no other family would have to suffer the same type of tragedy. Looking back, I realize that my resilience is founded on trying to create something purposeful out of a terrible life circumstance. I know Cesare would be proud of how I’ve leveraged his legacy to make positive change.
The title of your book – 26 SECONDS – is a reminder that our lives can instantly change in such a short amount of time. What do you want readers to understand most about this concept as they read your book?
We live on a razor’s edge between danger and safety, between life and death, between good and evil. And while we don’t have to dwell on that or live in fear of hypothetical what ifs, we should recognize that our time here is limited, and tomorrow is not guaranteed. My family learned that the hard way.
I’ve learned not to take anything for granted. I try to maximize each day and focus on what’s really important. More often than not, it’s the little things that make each day memorable and worth living. I hope the readers of ’26 Seconds’ walk away with that message.
Can you tell us about the aviation safety bill you advocated for in 2024, which was signed into law, and what improved measures do you hope to see for airline safety and travel going forward?
The FAA Reauthorization Bill was a robust, multi-year bill that provided funding for aviation infrastructure, invested in resilience, and advanced the safe and efficient delivery of projects. However, this is only a 5-year bill, and we must go through this all over again. Going forward, my hope is that the FAA and our nation’s infrastructure are provided with reliable and sustainable funding to ensure public safety.
Get a copy of ’26 Seconds: Grief and Blame in the Aftermath of Losing My Brother in a Plane Crash’, out now, and read Rossana’s story. Follow Rossana on Instagram, BlueSky, X(Twitter), Threads, Linkedin, and visit her website.
