What Happened on 9/11
September 10, 2008
We live in a different world now. Before 9/11 and After 9/11. TOUCHING HISTORY: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE DRAMA THAT UNFOLDED IN THE SKIES OVER AMERICA ON 9/11 walks that dividing line. Lynn Spencer's intensely intimate story is all the more believable because she is a commercial pilot -- and because she interviewed nearly every key player in the airline industry involved in the major events on 9/11.
Spencer ticks off minute by minute, and the horror of what happens feeds in. I feel a rolling panic as it becomes apparent that nearly every pilot, controller and military commander had to first stretch to comprehend that a terrorist attack was under way. Then, they had to make their most well-reasoned decisions in a flash, with almost no guidance from the highest levels. And for one man -- the Operations Manager of the FAA -- it was his first day on the job. The curtain pulls back as first he learns a plane is missing, then that it is highjacked, then that it is used as the first missile into the World Trade Center. Then he hears a tape of words spoken by the first hijackers "We have some planes." Not one plane. Planes. This book -- stark facts, quick glimpses of feeling, sparks of intuition -- is one goosebump after another.
One of the bittersweet moments happens at Boston Logan Airport. A Delta First Officer waves to the first officer aboard United Flight 175 -- and he "feels a strange, hair-standing-up-on-the-back-of-your-neck sensation." The Delta first officer then greets his captain -- both fans of the Simpsons -- and he recounts the episode when Homer puts his jelly donut down on the control panel, and sets off a spill. The First Officer of Delta 1989 tells his pilot "If anything happens to us today, I'm going to tell you I love you, and the rest is up to you."
Delta 1989 is sandwiched right between American Airlines Boeing 767 Flight 11 and United 175.
Goosebumps and heroes on every page.
We live in a different world now. Before 9/11 and After 9/11. TOUCHING HISTORY: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE DRAMA THAT UNFOLDED IN THE SKIES OVER AMERICA ON 9/11 walks that dividing line. Lynn Spencer's intensely intimate story is all the more believable because she is a commercial pilot -- and because she interviewed nearly every key player in the airline industry involved in the major events on 9/11.
Spencer ticks off minute by minute, and the horror of what happens feeds in. I feel a rolling panic as it becomes apparent that nearly every pilot, controller and military commander had to first stretch to comprehend that a terrorist attack was under way. Then, they had to make their most well-reasoned decisions in a flash, with almost no guidance from the highest levels. And for one man -- the Operations Manager of the FAA -- it was his first day on the job. The curtain pulls back as first he learns a plane is missing, then that it is highjacked, then that it is used as the first missile into the World Trade Center. Then he hears a tape of words spoken by the first hijackers "We have some planes." Not one plane. Planes. This book -- stark facts, quick glimpses of feeling, sparks of intuition -- is one goosebump after another.
One of the bittersweet moments happens at Boston Logan Airport. A Delta First Officer waves to the first officer aboard United Flight 175 -- and he "feels a strange, hair-standing-up-on-the-back-of-your-neck sensation." The Delta first officer then greets his captain -- both fans of the Simpsons -- and he recounts the episode when Homer puts his jelly donut down on the control panel, and sets off a spill. The First Officer of Delta 1989 tells his pilot "If anything happens to us today, I'm going to tell you I love you, and the rest is up to you."
Delta 1989 is sandwiched right between American Airlines Boeing 767 Flight 11 and United 175.
Goosebumps and heroes on every page.
Labels: 9/11, controllers, Delta, FAA, Lynn Spencer, pilots, TOUCHING HISTORY, United, World Trade Center
posted by Diana Page Jordan @ 11:22 PM
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