Book Review: Flight 93: The Story, the Aftermath, and the Legacy of American Courage on 9/11

 

This is a book that was written around the ten-year anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that is almost exclusively devoted to what happened on Flight 93 (which was the plane that crashed in rural Pennsylvania after the passengers and crew fought back), and the aftermath for the families and the nation as a whole. The author does detail some of the other events of the day, mostly the likely sequence of events that resulted in the other planes being hijacked and what targets they hit, but the focus of this book is mostly on Flight 93. 

The author interviewed many of the family members of the people on board the flight as well as the people who saw, heard, and/or felt the plane crash, and the responders (mostly the local coroner who became a rock for the families as he was trying to find and then identify remains) in his research. Even if you have watched many of the 9/11 documentaries and/or read the other books (even those devoted to Flight 93, specifically) there is probably material in this book that you have not heard. Both about the people on the plane (why they were traveling, etc.) and about the hijacker's movements before 9/11. There is also a lot of detail on the family member's fight to hear the cockpit voice recorder tape, and all the back-and-forth that they had to do with the FBI in order to be able to listen to it. The book is fairly short, just under 300 pages, and provides a lot of information, including endnotes that mostly cite to sources of information, but also occasionally provide additional detail. There are most definitely very sad parts, especially when he quotes family members, and especially those who got to talk to their loved ones before the fight for control of the plane began. It is definitely worth reading.