When a pilot experiences a sudden loud bang or sudden total silence, he is often faced with the stark choice of the parachute or attempting to get the aircraft down to earth in as few pieces as possible. This book describes twenty-three remarkable and true instances when, for a variety of reasons, all seems lost—but life was not. These life-threatening incidents range through the history of powered flight and all over the globe from Arctic waste to desert sand and from English hillside to coral reef. Within the narrative are moments of humor, despair and utter joy. The author has gleaned his information from a myriad of sources and many personal accounts. For those who love to read of the human spirit and its determination to survive against all odds—this book makes splendid reading.

An authority on pilot evasion, escape, and survival recounts extraordinary adventures that took place in Holland, Belgium, France, Spain, Italy, Albania, and Greece during World War II.

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.

James A. Nist lived an extraordinary life in his 24 years. Raised on a New Jersey farm, he graduated high school at 16 and earned both a bachelor's degree from Rutgers University and a private pilot's license. In 1942, he joined the Navy as an aviation cadet, earning his wings and an officer's commission in the Naval Reserve. He became proficient in three of the Navy's high-performance combat aircraft: the SBD Dauntless dive-bomber, the F6F Hellcat fighter and the F4U Corsair fighter. In 1945, he deployed to the Pacific aboard the carrier USS Bunker Hill and flew combat missions over Japan, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. Drawing on Nist's letters and personal papers and official Navy documents, historian Bryan J. Dickerson tells the story of his great uncle's life and service during World War II.

This compelling book tells some of the epic stories of the thousands of shot-down airmen, including many Canadians, who got out from behind enemy lines across all theatres of the Second World War. Based on special first-hand interviews and new research into official debriefing documents held at Britain's National Archives, many of these accounts have never been published before. This book explores the pivotal role of military intelligence that masterminded the training, support, and organization of escape and evasion; it also features rare photographs of the evaders and their helpers.