NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER This is history at its most immediate and moving...A marvelous and
memorable book. -Jon Meacham Remarkable...A priceless civic gift...On page after page a reader
will encounter words that startle or make him angry or heartbroken. -The Wall Street Journal
Had me turning each page with my heart in my throat...There's been a lot written about 9 11
but nothing like this. I urge you to read it. -Katie Couric The first comprehensive oral
history of September 11 2001-a panoramic narrative woven from voices on the front lines of an
unprecedented national trauma. Over the past eighteen years monumental literature has been
published about 9 11 from Lawrence Wright's The Looming Tower to The 9 11 Commission Report.
But one perspective has been missing up to this point-a 360-degree account of the day told
through firsthand. Now in The Only Plane in the Sky Garrett Graff tells the story of the day
as it was lived-in the words of those who lived it. Drawing on never-before-published
transcripts declassified documents original interviews and oral histories from nearly five
hundred government officials first responders witnesses survivors friends and family
members he paints the most vivid and human portrait of the September 11 attacks yet. Beginning
in the predawn hours of airports in the Northeast we meet the ticket agents who unknowingly
usher terrorists onto their flights and the flight attendants inside the hijacked planes. In
New York first responders confront a scene of unimaginable horror at the Twin Towers. From a
secret bunker under the White House officials watch for incoming planes on radar. Aboard
unarmed fighter jets in the air pilots make a pact to fly into a hijacked airliner if
necessary to bring it down. In the skies above Pennsylvania civilians aboard United 93 make
the ultimate sacrifice in their place. Then as the day moves forward and flights are grounded
nationwide Air Force One circles the country alone its passengers isolated and afraid. More
than simply a collection of eyewitness testimonies The Only Plane in the Sky is the historic
narrative of how ordinary people grappled with extraordinary events in real time: the father
and son caught on different ends of the impact zone the firefighter searching for his wife who
works at the World Trade Center the operator of in-flight telephone calls who promises to
share a passenger's last words with his family the beloved FDNY chaplain who bravely performs
last rites for the dying losing his own life when the Towers collapse and the generals at the
Pentagon who break down and weep when they are barred from trying to rescue their colleagues.
At once a powerful tribute to the courage of everyday Americans and an essential addition to
the literature of 9 11 The Only Plane in the Sky weaves together the unforgettable personal
experiences of the men and women who found themselves caught at the center of an unprecedented
human drama. The result is a unique profound and searing exploration of humanity on a day
that changed the course of history and all of our lives.
