Listen free for 30 days
Listen with offer
-
The Only Plane in the Sky
- The Oral History of 9/11
- Narrated by: Garrett M. Graff, Holter Graham, full cast
- Length: 15 hrs and 54 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
The Only Plane in the Sky
Buy Now for £10.00
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
Summary
The New York Times best seller.
Winner of Audiobook of the year at 2020 Audie Awards.
Of all the books about 9/11 one has been missing until now - a panoramic narrative from the men and women caught up in the unprecedented human drama of that terrible day.
The Only Plane in the Sky is nothing less than the first comprehensive oral history of 9/11, deftly woven and told in the voices of ordinary people grappling with extraordinary events. Drawing on never-before-published transcripts, recently declassified documents, new and archived interviews from nearly five hundred people, historian Garrett Graff skilfully tells the story of the day as it was lived.
It begins in the predawn hours of airports in the Northeast, where we meet the ticket agents who unknowingly usher terrorists onto their flights. In New York, first responders confront a scene of unimaginable chaos at the Twin Towers. From a secret bunker beneath the White House, Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice watch for incoming planes on radar. In the offices of the Pentagon, top officials feel the violent tremor as their headquarters come under attack.
We hear the stories of the father and son working on separate floors in the North Tower, the firefighter who rushes to the scene to search for his wife, the telephone operator who keeps her promise to share a passenger's last words with his family, the chaplain who stays on the scene to perform last rites, losing his own life when the Towers collapse, the teachers evacuating terrified children from schools mere blocks from the World Trade Center; the generals at the Pentagon who break down and weep when they are barred from rushing into the burning building to try and rescue their colleagues.
The Only Plane in the Sky is a unique, profound and searing exploration of humanity on a day that changed the course of history and all of our lives.
Critic reviews
"A hugely powerful new book." (Dan Snow)
"The most moving and chilling oral history you will read." (The Times)
"Although many years have passed since 9/11, this book, told with such immediacy, brings so vividly back to mind the shock of that day, and why it continues to shape the tragic history that has followed." (Lawrence Wright, author of The Looming Tower)
More from the same
Author
Narrator
What listeners say about The Only Plane in the Sky
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- SJ TREVELYAN-WHITE
- 18-09-21
Absolutely Harrowing
Very well put together. listening to their personal accounts is heart breaking a powerful book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 12-05-23
Absolutely amazing
A absolutely fascinating collection of recollections from all sorts of people of a day none of us will ever forget. A must listen, it’s amazing.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Lee
- 15-09-23
Wonderful, sad and reflective.
This is a wonderful book in the sense that the voices of those most affected by 9/11/01 are heard… it’s their stories. It’s sad because there’s so much heartbreak contained within the pages. And it’s reflective as the horrific event changed the world forever. I can’t imagine the terror and panic people went through….of course the Falling Man will forever be an image I can’t unsee. This book should be a mandatory read within schools and given to those who are brainwashed. It’s so well narrated…
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rob Sedgwick
- 01-10-22
Excellent
9/11 is completely unique, there is nothing like it, and there are so many stories and perspectives. I have read quite a few books on the subject, but it never loses its power to shock.
This audiobook is quite disjointed, so much happens so quickly, I had to stop it a few times just to give myself to think about what I was hearing. Nobody ever speaks in one clip for more than 1 minute, and quite a lot less.
Everything is in their own words though, and nearly all from people who lived through it.
The audiobook covers mainly the day itself, and a bit about its aftermath.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jim Vaughan
- 29-06-20
Gripping Minute by Minute Account of 9/11
I found this audiobook hard to put down. The range of voices, the pace of events and the comprehensive detailed accounts, from the boarding of the first plane, to the long term aftermath effects on those who were caught up in it, brings home the truly horrific and shocking nature of 9/11. The narrator is the thread that binds it all together. If you like factual accounts, of history in the making, this is hard to beat.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- William Rymer
- 13-12-20
9/11 Epic
I watched this day unfold for 3 hours during my lunchbreak as a suit salesman, cross legged on the local electronics store with 35 other retail staff in Cheltenham, UK. For someone so far removed from the events this story is still emotional and heart-rending.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
6 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Reg Daughty
- 25-05-20
Compelling, chilling and moving.
Incredibly compelling, chilling and moving. I was a UK teenager on 9/11 so although I've always been aware of what happened, I never really had a good sense of the effect the attacks had on the people who were there and relatives of those people. This book captures the human element of the events like nothing else I've read. It conveys so well the worst of human nature, which caused the attacks but also the best of it as people in hellish circumstances risked their lives to help each others and look for survivors.
This book had me in tears at times with the tragedy and convulsing with fear to imagine from eye witness testimony what it was like to be in the situation. Thank you so much to everyone who shared their stories and the author for assembling them into this book. I hope everyone had the chance to read this and more fully comprehend what happened on one of those days in history that changed the world forever. As another reviewer said, this book ensures that the date events don't just become a statistic, and we remember the human toll though awful events took
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- xcxDawnyxcx
- 26-08-21
Beautifully articulated
Such a sensitive topic that only a few people could narrate so perfectly and everyone in this book did so with sensitivity and compassion.
I was only 16 when the events of 9/11 took place, I now have a 13 year old son learning about it in history. This book will help him hear the more personal side as well as the political side. Beautifully articulated.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rui Ribeiro
- 21-09-19
A different but powerful account of 9/11
A very well research and organized account of 9/11. It conveys in its full brutality, the immense impact of the attacks on the lives of so many people. Includes testimony from all people involved, from the President of the USA to family members who lost loved ones in New York, the Pentagon or in Pennsylvania, where flight 93 crashed, as courageous passengers successfully prevented the hijackers from completing their plan to crash yet another plane.
It's a powerful book, well worth listening to. Highly recommended.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Katie
- 17-09-21
Fascinating
This is a wonderful collection of testimonies from many people whose lives were caught up in the September 11th atrocities. Absolutely fascinating and humbling to hear. Explains so much about what happened, in New York, the Pentagon and aboard AF1; the experiences and the emotions.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!