Found at a 2nd hand booksale.

Its hard to know just went on, on that flight and I guess we will never really know. The author did a good job of piecing things together, though, from taped calls, interviews and onflight sound recordings. He gives backgrounds on the passengers and to some extent, the hijackers as well. It was interesting to read about the aftermath of it all - especially with how the families and friends of the victims, handled their grief. It is one thing to lose a loved one suddenly, but to lose them so 'publicly' as well? The horror must have been one hundred fold.
I can't say I would have liked many of the passengers as individuals but would I want them on my side, in a plane that was being hijacked and being used as a missile? You bet I would.
Towards the end of the book, the author has included a Native American prayer which was very moving and very apt.
There is much talk of patriotism and national heroism, saving the White House etc but I think what it really comes down to is a concentrated group of A-type, assertive people who pushed their way through their own terror, in an attempt to save their own lives. Now, that was admirable.

Posted off to elddau1 in a bag full of books.

A surprise in the bag, thank you for sending this book too libertine101. An opportunity to understand more of what happened.

Ten years on this year, the day that everything changed. In memory of those that were killed and those who suffered their loss I would like to release this on September 11 somewhere appropriate. I know a local BookCrosser who would probably like to read it too.

Taking to the March get-together for BookCrossers & friends
at 'The Kitchen Cabinet' cafe at Old Parliament House, on Saturday.

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Please let us know you have it by making a journal entry here. (You can be anonymous if you wish.)
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Cheers and Happy Reading!

Chris, you know how to press my buttons! A book about airline travel - I'll enjoy reading this one.

And Lib, thank you too. The story of these passengers has at once horrified and inspired me.

I've known the bare facts for some time, but it was good to read an in-depth look at the people and the events, or what little is known about them.

For all the times I've been searched and delayed and asked intrusive questions by the TSA, I've endured it. The whole American security mechanism to keep air travellers safe is expensive, intrusive, resource-intensive and useless.

Yup, that's right. It took these passengers half an hour to defeat al-Qaeda's plan to use missiles to attack important US installations. Once the passengers aboard this flight - and every other flight since the moment the news broke of a hijacked airline slamming into the world Trade Centre - realised that there was no safe landing with these hijackers aboard they had only one chance to survive and that was to retake the plane.

Nothing special about this bunch. Every US airliner I've taken has had a good proportion of business people, military personnel and go-getters. The hijacking game changed on 11 September 2001, when the planes and the passengers were no longer bargaining chips. If the plane is captured, the passengers will retake it or die trying because fighting back is their only choice. Bruce Schneier has put it like this: "Exactly two things have made airline travel safer since 9/11: reinforcement of cockpit doors, and passengers who now know that they may have to fight back. Everything else -- Secure Flight and Trusted Traveler included -- is security theatre."

I think, if pushed, a bunch of grandmothers and schoolchildren would do exactly what these passengers did. They would boil water, they would grab fire extinguishers and anything else available as a weapon, and they would overwhelm the hijackers, who aren't going to have anything much better, and will be hugely outnumbered.

The stories of the passengers and crew - I read a few, but largely skipped over them. Admirable folk, especially the way that they are remembered here. The author got their stories because there were so few passengers and crew, only about forty on a transcontinental flight.

What I enjoyed is the way that he linked the little bits of information from phone calls and the observations of ground control etc into a narrative. i knew how it turned out, of course, but it was still interesting to read the details.

Probably not a good book to release at an airport!

I left this in the common room in the Rehab ward. There's a huge stock of jigsaws, Lib, and a couple of shelves of books.

We were visiting a mate with a badly broken leg. He's been mostly immobile for a month now, and his full recovery will be many more weeks.

Books always help.