Touching History: The Untold Story of the Drama That Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11 |...

Touching History: The Untold Story of the Drama That Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11 | Lynn Spencer | Air Traffic Controllers

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Touching History: ...

	Touching History: The Untold Story of the Drama That Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11 Lynn Spencer Free Press, 2008 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 31 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

On the azure blue morning of 9/11 the skies were pronounced "severe clear," in the parlance of airline pilots; a gorgeous day for flying. Nearly 5,000 flights were cruising the skies over America when FAA Operations Manager Ben Sliney arrived at the Command Center for his first day on that job. He could never have anticipated the historic drama that was about to unfold as Americans who found themselves on the front lines of a totally unprecedented attack on our homeland sprang into action to defend our country and save lives.

In this gripping moment-to-moment narrative, based on groundbreaking reporting, Lynn Spencer brings the inspiring true drama of their unflinching and heroic response vividly to life for the first time, taking us right inside the airliner cockpits and control towers, the fighter jets and the military battle cabs. She makes vital corrections to the findings of the 9/11 Commission Report, and reveals many startling, utterly unknown elements of the story.

As a commercial pilot herself, for whom the attacks hit terribly close to home, she knew that the true scope and nature of the response so brilliantly improvised that morning by those in the thick of the action -- with so little guidance from those at the highest levels -- had not at all been captured by the news coverage or the 9/11 Commission. To get to the truth, she went on a three-year quest, interviewing hundreds of key players, listening to untold hours of tapes and pouring through voluminous transcripts to re-create each heart-stopping moment as it happened through their eyes and in their words as the drama unfolded.

From the shocking moment at 7:59 a.m. that American 11 fails to respond to a controller's call, until the last commercial flight has safely landed and military jets rule the skies, all Americans will find themselves deeply moved and amazed by the grace and fierce determination of these steely men and women as they draw on all of their exquisite training to grasp, through the fog of war, what is happening, put their lives on the line, and mount an astonishing response.

This beautifully crafted and deeply affecting account of the full story of their courageous actions is a vital addition to the country's understanding of a day that has forever changed our nation.

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Phenominal!

This is a must-read for those who want to know how that awful day unfolded. Gut-wrenching and spellbinding, you'll find yourself shouting warnings to the book's characters in a fruitless effort to avoid the obvious outcome. If you can possibly manage to get through this book in more than one sitting then you have nerves of steel.

I gave it only 4 stars simply because of the complex language of aviation that is used through-out the book. It makes sense because that is the subject and place of the events however most readers will probably find it rather confusing and slow-going in places. Luckily, I was born into aviation so quickly adapted to the lingo but others may not.

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Air Traffic Controllers

Touching History is a suspenseful book. The author, Lynn Spencer, writes mostly from the perspective of the air traffic controllers. She spends many hours interviewing the controllers, and summarizing the many volumes of The 9/11 Commission Reports, to write her detailed book. I learned many details about 9/11, and fortunately the book was nonpartisan,as no one was blamed for the tragic events of that day.

The first plane hijacked is American Airlines Flight 11. It is off their radar screen and the plane is not in radio contact. CNN reports that a small plane has hit one of the Twin Towers, so they wrongly assume that it is not their plane. When another plane goes off course, United Airlines Flight 175, they lose radio contact. At first, they get Flight 11 mixed up with Flight 175.

The pilots are asking for guidance from the control tower, but at first, the air traffic controllers are ignoring them, because they busy trying to deal with the missing planes.

Eventually the air traffic controllers realize that their planes have been hijacked, but they do not know how many planes have been hijacked.

The Air National Guard scramble their jets and thereby, create sonic blooms over our cities. However, the pilots are not sure of their mission, or where it is. They fly towards the open sea of the Atlantic, New York City, and towards Washington D.C. Some of the pilots almost run out of fuel. Eventually they find something to do. They escort planes that are forced to land. They follow United flight 93 before it goes out of view and crashes.

When our air space is closed, there is a big problem. There are hundreds of flights and they all need to land somewhere. Fortunately, our friends, the Canadians, allow us into their air space so we can land the planes.

This is all detailed in the book.

The author explains why they are the rumors about Flight 93 being shot down. Also interesting is in learning about Untied Flight 23, JFK-Los Angeles. This flight was order back to the gate before take off. This is fortunate as there were four young Arabs men in first class. Were these Arabs men identified and questioned by the FBI?

My only criticism of the book was that sometimes it was hard to follow. I had to refer to The 9/11 Commission Report Book to clarify the chain of events. A time line and charts would have made Touching History less confusing. I did not want to spend a few hours sorting it out. Because of the confusion, I am giving this book 4 stars. Five stars to the air traffic controllers, and the Air Force National Guard, who did their best under horrible conditions.

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Articulate but confusing tale of a confusing day

This book does a good job of telling the basic story of the confusion that reigned in the air on 9/11. It does a great job of telling how air traffic controllers had no real idea of which planes were hijacked and which ones were not. It also is very interesting to read the steps that were considered and sometimes taken by long haul flights over the Pacific to forestall any takeovers of their plans. The aspects dealing with Canadian flights is also very interesting to read.

The book is extremely weak as it trys to portray the military pilots as significant contributors for 9/11. I say this with no ill will but the military was at best a spectator to these events and the author tries to portray them as hero's who rushed in and saved the day and prevented it from being worse. Yet that doesn't really hold water. It's too bad because it takes away from the real hero's who actions deserve and are worthy of praise and mention.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

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