REVIEW:

The title The Only Plane in the Sky refers to Air Force One on September 11, 2001, as all aircraft over US airspace were grounded except the one carrying the president. Author Garrett M. Graff wanted to document what it was like aboard the plane on that fateful day, and the result was a 2016 moment-by-moment account for “Politico” that can be found here.

Given the tremendous response to that article and a desire to more exhaustively document 9/11, Graff expanded his research to include eye witness accounts by survivors, communications from those that perished, and first person accounts of what it was like to be an American citizen watching life as you knew it crumble on a Tuesday morning that started out just like any other. The result is a truly staggering work of journalism that receives my highest recommendation, and I am not alone in my praise. Its average Amazon rating is a full 5 stars, and Goodreads stands at 4.72.

The Only Plane in the Sky is a chronological oral history, so it unfolds as the day did. You’re taken from what was happening in any given moment from the World Trade Center site, to Air Force One, to the Pentagon, to United 93. The audiobook does contain real recordings of communications between air traffic control and flight attendants (most notably Betty Ong on American Airlines flight 11) that will bring you to your knees, as well as speeches by George W. Bush and Barack Obama (in an epilogue, when Osama bin Laden was killed). The print book in turn has diagrams, maps, and graphic photos (including The Falling Man).

One standout aspect of the accounts is how many people noted what a beautiful morning Tuesday, September 11, 2001 was before 8:46am. It will make you want to step outside, look up, and marvel at the glory of the mundane.

Please read this book.

PUBLISHER SYNOPSIS:

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.