The Only Plane in the Sky

An Oral History of 9/11

Garrett M. Graff

• Publisher: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9781501182211
• eBook ISBN:
  9781501182228
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

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.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Key Moments
• Author’s Note
• Chapter 1: Aboard the International Space Station
• Chapter 2: September 10th
• Chapter 3: Tuesday Begins
• Chapter 4: Checking In
• Chapter 5: 8:00 a.m. in New York City
• Chapter 6: The Hijackings
• Chapter 7: Inside Air Traffic Control
• Chapter 8: The First Plane
• Chapter 9: The Second Hijacking
• Chapter 10: The Military Gears Up
• Chapter 11: The Second Plane
• Chapter 12: Live, on Air
• Chapter 13: At Emma Booker Elementary School, Sarasota, Florida
• Chapter 14: First Reactions in D.C.
• Chapter 15: American Airlines Flight 77
• Chapter 16: The Third Plane
• Chapter 17: On Capitol Hill
• Chapter 18: Flight 93 in Peril
• Chapter 19: The World Trade Center Evacuation
• Chapter 20: Jumping
• Chapter 21: The FAA Makes History
• Chapter 22: The Trade Center Rescue Continues
• Chapter 23: The First Collapse
• Chapter 24: Inside the Cloud
• Chapter 25: Inside the PEOC
• Chapter 26: The Military Responds
• Chapter 27: The Fourth Crash
• Chapter 28: Fear at the Pentagon
• Chapter 29: The First Casualty
• Chapter 30: Around the Towers
• Chapter 31: After the Collapse
• Chapter 32: The Rescue at Shanksville
• Chapter 33: At School in Arlington, Virginia
• Chapter 34: Aboard Air Force One, Somewhere over the Gulf of Mexico
• Chapter 35: Among Those Who Knew
• Chapter 36: Escaping the Pentagon
• Chapter 37: In Between Collapses
• Chapter 38: The Second Collapse
• Chapter 39: Trapped in the Ruins
• Chapter 40: After the Collapse
• Chapter 41: At the Waterfront
• Chapter 42: Midmorning at the Pentagon
• Chapter 43: Midmorning at the Capitol
• Chapter 44: With the Secretary of Defense
• Chapter 45: At Barksdale Air Force Base
• Chapter 46: Midday in New York City
• Chapter 47: Midday in Washington
• Chapter 48: Airborne, Somewhere over the Plains
• Chapter 49: Afternoon in Shanksville
• Chapter 50: At Mount Weather
• Chapter 51: At Ground Zero
• Chapter 52: At the Hospitals
• Chapter 53: The 9/11 Generation
• Chapter 54: At Offutt Air Force Base
• Chapter 55: Afternoon in America
• Chapter 56: Searching
• Chapter 57: 9/11 at Sea
• Chapter 58: Afternoon at the Pentagon
• Chapter 59: Airborne, En Route to Andrews Air Force Base
• Chapter 60: Evening in Washington
• Chapter 61: In the Oval Office
• Chapter 62: The Evening of 9/11
• Chapter 63: The Day Ends
• Epilogue
• Photographs
• Acknowledgements
• Sources
• On 9/11, Luck Meant Everything
• Reading Group Guide
• About the Author
• Notes
• Index
• Image Credits
• Copyright