"The Only Plane in the Sky" Book Review
In “The Only Plane in the Sky,” an oral history of 9/11, Garrett Graff writes of the “cloudless skies that made an enduring impression on all who would witness what transpired in the hours ahead.” He quotes people who describe the sky high over New York and Washington. “A gorgeous blue,” says a Virginia police officer. “Deep blue,” says a Capitol Hill staffer. “Deep, deep blue,” says a chef in Manhattan. Others remember the hue overhead as “cobalt blue,” “cerulean blue” and “the bluest of blues,” and as one “that you wish you could put in a bottle.”
Over 64 fine-sliced chapters, Mr. Graff, a former editor at Politico, gives us “the stories of those who lived through and experienced 9/11—where they were, what they remember, and how their lives changed.” The result is remarkable, and Mr. Graff’s curation of these accounts—drawn from hundreds of his own interviews and from the reporting of other journalists and historians—is a priceless civic gift. After all, as he notes, the fall of 2019 “will mark the entrance of the first college class born after the attacks.”
(snip)
On page after page, a reader will encounter words that startle, or make him angry, or heartbroken, or queasy. Mohamed Atta was running late at Portland International Jetport, in Maine, for his flight to Boston, where he would board American Airlines Flight 11, the plane he crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center in New York. Mike Tuohey, a ticket agent in Portland, recalls saying, with the usual professional courtesy: “Mr. Atta, if you don’t go now, you will miss your plane.” (Yes, everyone who reads this will ask himself what might have been had Atta missed his flight.) Pages later, we encounter the recorded words of Amy Sweeney, a flight attendant on AA 11, spoken on an Airfone to a manager on the ground. “Something is wrong. I don’t think the captain is in control. I see water. I see buildings. We’re flying low. We’re flying very, very low. Oh my God. We’re flying way too low.” Within seconds, the plane hit the tower.
There is much in this book about the bravery of the firefighters and security personnel who responded to the attacks. Father Mychal Judge was a chaplain with the Fire Department of New York, the only priest to enter the towers that day, administering last rites. He died in the North Tower. “The firemen took his body,” a friar says. “Because they respected and loved him so much, they didn’t want to leave it in the street. They quickly carried it into [nearby] St. Peter’s Church.” Rick Rescorla was a former British paratrooper who was vice president of security for Morgan Stanley in the South Tower: Ignoring the Port Authority’s assurance that the tower was safe, he said: “I’m getting my people the f— out of here.” He saved hundreds of lives in the process but lost his own.
(snip)
There are countless other stories of selflessness, of decency, of 911-operators telling people trapped on the topmost floors—who had called in to say, “I’m going to die, aren’t I?”—that help was on the way and that they weren’t going to die. Untruths, of course, but of the utmost kindness. In Mr. Graff’s book, the little details are allowed to speak for themselves, and the effect is one of notable eloquence.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-only-plane-in-the-sky-and-fall-and-rise-review-out-of-the-blue-on-sept-11-11567782975 (paid subscription)
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