The Only Plane in the Sky is a compilation of stories about the attacks on September 11, 2001. There are stories from firefighters who fought fires at the World Trade Center in New York on that day. Over the next few days, they searched for survivors. Finally, for many weeks or even months, they searched for bodies. There are stories from spouses of the people who fought the hijackers onboard American Airlines flight 93. And from the airline employee who checked them all in earlier that day. Some people from the press corps traveling with President Bush that day share their experiences. And there are stories from kids as young as 5 years old. They all talk about how they remember that September 11 and how it has influenced their lives since.
The author, or rather the compiler of the book, is Garrett M. Graff.

I was 21. I remember where I was. I had my own company and I was designing and building a web application. I was at my colleague’s (and friend’s) house. I was on my own. I don’t remember what triggered me to turn on the TV. When I saw the fire burning in Tower 2, I thought a terrible accident had happened. I saw the second plane fly into Tower 1. I was confused. Were they showing a film on CNN? I could not believe that someone would intentionally fly a plane into a building. They flew three planes into three buildings before the day was over. It would have been four if it wasn’t for the brave people on American Airlines flight 93.

The facts about the attacks have been well documented. The FBI, the CIA, and several other organizations across the world have investigated the attacks and the attackers. If you are interested in the details there is a lot of material out there that you can read. There won’t be many people alive today who haven’t heard of Al Qaeda. Or of Osama Bin Laden. A lot of people know that after a long manhunt, Bin Laden was finally killed in 2011. The United States Army had been trying to find him for 10 years. The intricate tunnel complex that Al Qaeda created in Afghanistan did its job of protecting the organization and hiding its people very well.

On September 11, 2001 2977 people were killed. Among them 343 firefighters and 72 law enforcement officers. Parts of the New York fire department were decimated overnight and had to be rebuild from the ground up.
All these numbers are a testament to the viciousness of the attacks and the devastation that they caused. Yet it’s highly unlikely that you will be crying because of what you’ve just read. Numbers don’t trigger emotional reactions. They are too factual and sterile. What happened that day can’t be described by numbers. To get a sense of the real impact of the tragedy we need stories. And that’s where this book comes in.

The Only Plane in the Sky tells the story of the day as it was experienced by many different people. I listened to the audiobook, which is performed by a cast of 45 people. It made the stories come to life in an incredible way. Most of the narratives are taken from interviews and people’s memories, but there is also some original audio. The speech that President Bush gave and some of the 911 calls for instance.

The audiobook is 16 hours long and I was crying or on the verge of crying throughout most of those 16 hours. Some of the stories triggered my memories but a lot of them show what happened that day from a point of view that I had never considered.
It’s a remarkable and incredibly emotional book. If you think you can stomach it I highly recommend it. This book does a much better job of getting the horror of that day across than all the facts and figures will ever be able to do.