Book Review: "The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11" by Garrett M. Graff
“The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11” by Garrett M. Graff
Synopsis: The first comprehensive oral history of September 11, 2001—a panoramic narrative woven from the voices of Americans 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, which traced the rise of al-Qaeda, to The 9/11 Commission Report, the government’s definitive factual retrospective of the attacks. 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, award-winning journalist and bestselling historian 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, recently declassified documents, original interviews, and oral histories from nearly five hundred government officials, first responders, witnesses, survivors, friends, and family members, Graff 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 City, first responders confront a scene of unimaginable horror at the Twin Towers. From a secret bunker underneath the White House, officials watch for incoming planes on radar. Aboard the small number of 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 Flight 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 working in the North Tower, 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 rushing into the burning building to try 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. - Avid Reader Press
Rating (out of 5): 5
Review: Like every person alive on September 11, 2001, I vividly remember where I was when I heard the news that the second tower had been hit — I was a tenth grader, at school in Mobile, Alabama, in between 2 and 3rd periods, getting books from my locker when a classmate yelled for us to come in and watch the news. I walked calmly into Mrs. Hardin’s classroom to see what had happened, and I could not have imagined in that moment that life would never been quite the same again.
That said, I was in Alabama — far from the wreckage of the Twin Towers or the Pentagon, and like many, I didn’t even know that Shanksville, Pennsylvania was a place. All I knew was from the news, and though I like to think I was a precocious 15-year-old, a ton of the urgency went over my head. I had no basis for understanding terrorism on such a scale, and as such, everything about that day was confusing and overwhelming.
In “The Only Plane in the Sky,” Garrett Graff made me feel like I was there, in the thick of things, even when (quite honestly) I didn’t want to be. He talked to over 200 people about their experiences on the day — everyone from the gate agent that checked in the terrorists at Dulles to Tom Brokaw to survivors pulled from the wreckage. The result is an incredibly compelling narrative of the day, as it actually unfolded. You felt the worry of family members, the devastation of FDNY members who lost their friends and colleagues, and the bewilderment of everyone that something like this could happen in the United States.
It is an amazing read. It has been a long time since I have felt so engrossed in a book — I honestly didn’t want to put it down, and I found myself contemplating buying a (second) Kindle version so that when I had a quiet moment in the (one) day I read it, I would be able to keep going. It was compelling, and even though I knew what was going to happen in the broad sense, dialing into the details of what actually happened made me understand so much more.
During that time of my life, my father was splitting time between Mobile and New York, and we had planned a trip up in October 2001; I am sure there was debate over whether or not I should still go, but ultimately, I boarded the plane. It was the first time I remember airport security being a big deal — luckily, I had a photo ID in my learners permit — and New York was still eerily quiet. We did go down to Ground Zero, and by that point, progress had been made in clearing the rubble. To my eyes, it still looked like a war zone, and I cannot imagine what it was like closer to the day. Though this book, I have a much better image of what it was like to live through the hell and heartbreak of that day, and we owe a lot to the author for creating such an important history.
Needless to say, I think every American needs to read this book — heck, I’ll expand that to our international readers as well. This is an essential work to understand how we got where we are today; more than that, it is an amazing portrait of strength, resilience, and hope.
TL;DR: Drop what you are reading and pick this one up. It is so hard but so necessary about one of the most tragic days in American history.
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