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

A modern classic of American history: 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 twenty-five 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 the voices of the people who experienced it.

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