The only plane in the sky : an oral history of 9/11

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Title:

Author:

Graff, Garrett M., 1981-

Publication Date:

2019

ISBN:

9781501182204

Personal Author:

Graff, Garrett M., 1981-

Edition:

First Avid Reader Press hardcover edition.

Physical Description:

xxii, 483 pages, 32 unnumbered pages of plates : color illustrations, maps ; 25 cm

Contents:

Author's note -- Aboard the International Space Station -- September 10th -- Tuesday begins -- Checkin in -- 8:00 a.m. in New York City -- The hijackings -- Inside Air Traffic Control -- The first plane -- The second hijacking - The military gears up -- The second plane -- Live, on air -- At Emma Booker Elementary School, Sarasota, Florida -- First reactions in D.C. -- American Airlines Flight 77 -- The third plane -- On Capitol Hill -- Flight 93 in peril -- The World Trade Center evacuation -- Jumping -- The FAA makes history -- The Trade Center rescue continues -- The first collapse -- Inside the cloud -- Inside the PEOC -- The military responds -- The fourth crash -- Fear at the Pentagon -- The first casualty -- Around the Towers -- After the collapse -- The rescue at Shanksville -- At school in Arlington, Virginia -- Aboard Air Force One, somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico -- Among those who knew -- Escaping the Pentagon -- In between collapses -- The second collapse -- Trapped in the ruins -- After the collapse -- At the waterfront -- Midmorning at the Pentagon -- Midmorning at the Capitol -- With the Secretary of Defense -- At Barksdale Air Force Base -- Midday in New York City -- Midday in Washington -- Airborne, somewhere over the Plains -- Afternoon in Shanksville -- At Mount Weather -- At Ground Zero -- At the hospitals -- The 9/11 generation -- At Offutt Air Force Base -- Afternoon in America -- Searching -- 9/11 at sea -- Afternoon at the Pentagon -- Airborne, en route to Andrews Air Force Base -- Evening in Washington -- In the Oval Office -- The evening of 9/11 -- The day ends -- Epilogue -- Acknowledgments -- Sources -- Notes -- Index -- Image credits.

Abstract:

"Over the last eighteen years, much has been written and said about the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the profound impact they had on America and the world. But those names, stories, and memories have never before been collected in one place to tell the full, 360-degree story of what happened that day, and in the days after."

Corporate Subject:

World Trade Center (New York, N.Y. : 1970-2001)

Pentagon (Va.)

Subject Term:

September 11 Terrorist Attacks, 2001 -- Personal narratives.

Terrorism -- New York (State) -- New York -- Personal narratives.

Oral history -- United States.

Geographic Term:

United States -- History -- 21st century -- Personal narratives.

Added Title:

An oral history of 9/11.

An oral history of Nine-Eleven.

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Library	Material Type	Call Number	Status
Searching... El Dorado Hills Branch	Book	973.931 GRA	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Placerville Main Library	Book	973.931 GRA	Searching... Unknown
Searching... South Lake Tahoe Library	Book	973.931 GRA	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

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.

Author Notes

Garrett M. Graff has spent nearly two decades covering politics, technology, and national security. The former editor of Politico and contributor to Wired and CNN, he's written for publications from Esquire to Rolling Stone to The New York Times , and today serves as the director of the cyber initiative at the Aspen Institute. Graff is the author of multiple books, including the FBI history The Threat Matrix , Raven Rock (about the government's Cold War Doomsday plans), When the Sea Came Alive (an oral history of D-Day), and the New York Times bestsellers The Only Plane in the Sky and Watergate , which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in History.

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Journalist Graff (Raven Rock) organizes first-person accounts of 9/11 from numerous sources and adds contextualizing facts and maps to produce a harrowing and powerful narrative of that day. He follows airline personnel, passengers, and their spouses; first responders; those surrounding President Bush and the rest of the nation's leadership; media employees; and others. Graff sets the stage with seemingly mundane decisions whose significance readers will suspect, such as choosing to have a pair of glasses fixed rather than going directly to work in Tower Two, or going back to a hotel room for a different shirt before a meeting. As the crises unfold, Graff balances the reports of rescues and deaths from New York and the Pentagon with reactions aboard Air Force One; in Shanksville, Penn., where Flight 93 crashed; and in other relevant locations. Graff doesn't shy away from describing casualties, such as those who jumped from the towers, but keeps those passages brief. By the end of the day, there are some tearful reunions, but the hospitals, braced to receive hundreds of casualties, are eerily empty. The bewilderment, fear, and courage exhibited on that day are palpable in these recollections. This vivid, moving work is painful to read but honors both those who died and those who survived that awful day. (Sept.)

Booklist Review

9/11 was a tragedy before it became a symbol and dividing line in American history, an act of violence that killed almost 3000 people and deeply impacted the lives of thousands of survivors, thousands more who lost loved ones, first responders, and many communities. As it begins to recede into history, award-winning journalist Graff (Raven Rock, 2017) has gathered memories, testimonies, and transcripts into a collective oral history designed to help readers ""to hear others' stories, to know what it was like to experience the day firsthand, to wrestle with the confusion and the terror."" Drawing on a wide range of earlier oral history work and his own interviews, Graff juxtaposes the basic narrative of 9/11 the hijackings, the collapsing structures and their impacts, the response to the attacks by political leaders and the military with a diverse group of individual experiences. There are tragedies and losses, moments of heroism and survival, and fears and foreshadowings of a darker future to come. ""We were spared,"" recalls one survivor, ""but everything changed."" This book is an excellent resource for readers seeking to understand how, and why.--Sara Jorgensen Copyright 2010 Booklist

Kirkus Review

Wrenching, highly personal accounts of 9/11 and its aftermath.Former POLITICO and Washingtonian editor Graff (Raven Rock: The Story of the U.S. Government's Secret Plan To Save ItselfWhile the Rest of Us Die, 2017, etc.) returns with an impressive feat of organization, editing, and balance. He begins the story early in the morning of 9/11, proceeds through the entire day, and then follows up with comments from people about the ensuing weeks, months, and years. He spent three years collecting stories from a wide variety of peoplesurvivors, responders, politicians, witnesses, family membersand then assembled the pieces into a coherent and powerful re-creation of the attacks on the twin towers, the Pentagon, and (perhaps) the Capitol, an attack that failed when the passengers aboard Flight 93 fought back, their plane crashing in a Pennsylvania field. Some of the storytellers' names are well knowne.g., Katie Couric, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Laura Bushbut most of them are not. Graff also does an admirable job of maintaining focus on the personal stories and does not drift off into political commentaryor engage in placing blameor arrange the material so that some of his interviewees look good and some bad. Pretty much everyone emerges looking good, from President George W. Bush on down the political laddernot to mention the stunning heroism of the fire and police departments and the unnumbered, and sometimes nameless, others who rushed to help. Graff excels at re-creating the anxiety and terror of that day: What is happening? What's next? Who did this? Most affecting of all, of course, are the accounts of those who survived, the responders who struggled to help (and who lost so many of their colleagues), and the families who learned a loved one would never be coming home. Pair this with Mitchell Zuckoff's Fall and Rise for a full, well-rounded perspective on this monumental tragedy.Readers who emerge dry-eyed from the text should check their pulses: Something is wrong with their hearts. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Library Journal Review

One of the most traumatic days in U.S. history was the September 11, 2001, al-Qaeda hijackings of four airliners turned into weapons of mass destruction. Graff (Raven Rock), director of Aspen Institute's cybersecurity and technology program, spent three years conducting hundreds of interviews with those who became heroes, victims, and survivors on the day when all U.S. flights were grounded, except Air Force One. Included are oral histories conducted by journalists and historians, resulting in an hour-by-hour remembrance of that day. Overarching themes are the heroism of first responders and civilians, families torn apart and trying to pick up the pieces of their lives, and the transformation of a country mired in chaos to one steeled to destroy the terrorists responsible for 2,983, and counting, deaths. President George W. Bush, who was shuttled on Air Force One from Washington, DC, to military bases in Louisiana and Nebraska, then back to the capital, all on 9/11, delivered the most important speech of his presidency that evening. That, along with the heartrendering evacuation of New York's World Trade Center, are two of many threads that will stay with readers. VERDICT This excellent oral history provides a much-needed perspective of the events and aftermath.--Karl Helicher, formerly with Upper Merion Twp. Lib., King of Prussia, PA

Excerpts

The Only Plane in the Sky Aboard the International Space Station On August 12, 2001, NASA astronaut Frank Culbertson arrived at the International Space Station aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery. He would live and work aboard the Space Station for 125 days. On September 11, 2001, he was the only American off the planet. Commander Frank Culbertson, astronaut, NASA: On September the 11th, 2001, I called the ground, and my flight surgeon Steve Hart came on. I said, "Hey Steve, how's it going?" He said, "Well, Frank, we're not having a very good day down here on Earth." He began to describe to me what was happening in New York--the airplanes flown into the World Trade Center, another airplane flown into the Pentagon. He said, "We just lost another airplane somewhere in Pennsylvania. We don't know where or what's happening." I looked at the laptop that has our world map on it, and I saw that we were coming across southern Canada. In a minute we were going to be over New England. I raced around, found a video camera and a window facing in the right direction. About 400 miles away from New York City, I could clearly see the city. It was a perfect weather day all over the United States, and the only activity I could see was this big black column of smoke coming out of New York City, out over Long Island, and over the Atlantic. As I zoomed in with a video camera, I saw this big gray blob basically enveloping the southern part of Manhattan. I was seeing the second tower come down. I assumed tens of thousands of people were being hurt or killed. It was horrible to see my country under attack. We had 90 minutes to set up for the next pass across the United States. We set up every camera we could. I said, "Guys, we're gonna take pictures of everything we can see as we come across the U.S." An hour and a half later, we crossed Chicago. I was looking all around for any evidence of further attacks. I could see all the way to Houston. In a few minutes, we crossed Washington, D.C., directly over the Pentagon. I could look straight down and see the gash on the side of it. I could see the lights of the rescue vehicles, the smoke of the fires. Looking north, I could clearly see New York City and the column of smoke. Every orbit, we kept trying to see more of what was happening. One of the most startling effects was that within about two orbits, all the contrails normally crisscrossing the United States had disappeared because they had grounded all the airplanes and there was nobody else flying in U.S. airspace except for one airplane that was leaving a contrail from the central U.S. toward Washington. That was Air Force One heading back to D.C. with President Bush. Excerpted from The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 by Garrett M. Graff All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

Author's Note	p. xix
Aboard the International Space Station	p. 1
September 10th	p. 3
Tuesday Begins	p. 7
Checking In	p. 13
8:00 a.m. in New York City	p. 14
The Hijackings	p. 19
Inside Air Traffic Control	p. 28
The First Plane	p. 32
The Second Hijacking	p. 54
The Military Gears Up	p. 57
The Second Plane	p. 61
Live, on Air	p. 72
At Emma Booker Elementary School, Sarasota, Florida	p. 74
First Reactions in D.C	p. 82
American Airlines Flight 77	p. 89
The Third Plane	p. 94
On Capitol Hill	p. 101
Flight 93 in Peril	p. 105
The World Trade Center Evacuation	p. 112
Jumping	p. 131
The FAA Makes History	p. 134
The Trade Center Rescue Continues	p. 138
The First Collapse	p. 147
Inside the Cloud	p. 154
Inside the PEOC	p. 162
The Military Responds	p. 167
The Fourth Crash	p. 170
Fear at the Pentagon	p. 178
The First Casualty	p. 181
Around the Towers	p. 186
After the Collapse	p. 190
The Rescue at Shanksville	p. 198
At School in Arlington, Virginia	p. 206
Aboard Air Force One, Somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico	p. 209
Among Those Who Knew	p. 218
Escaping the Pentagon	p. 225
In Between Collapses	p. 237
The Second Collapse	p. 242
Trapped in the Ruins	p. 250
After the Collapse	p. 255
At the Waterfront	p. 258
Midmorning at the Pentagon	p. 266
Midmorning at the Capitol	p. 273
With the Secretary of Defense	p. 275
At Barksdale Air Force Base	p. 279
Midday in New York City	p. 285
Midday in Washington	p. 301
Airborne, Somewhere over the Plains	p. 306
Afternoon in Shanksville	p. 309
At Mount Weather	p. 312
At Ground Zero	p. 316
At the Hospitals	p. 329
The 9/11 Generation	p. 331
At Offutt Air Force Base	p. 342
Afternoon in America	p. 348
Searching	p. 351
9/11 at Sea	p. 357
Afternoon at the Pentagon	p. 360
Airborne, En Route to Andrews Air Force Base	p. 364
Evening in Washington	p. 369
In the Oval Office	p. 373
The Evening of 9/11	p. 376
The Day Ends	p. 387
Epilogue	p. 391
Acknowledgments	p. 427
Sources	p. 433
Notes	p. 429
Index	p. 451
Image Credits	p. 481

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Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Booklist Review

Kirkus Review

Library Journal Review

Excerpts

Excerpts

Table of Contents