Touching History

Now in paperback, the riveting story of the response of the heroic pilots and air traffic controllers who found themselves on the front lines of an undeclared war on September 11, 2001. In this gripping minute-to-minute narrative, based on an astonishing feat of reporting, Lynn Spencer re-creates the never-before told story of the unprecedented battle in the skies on 9/11, making vital corrections to the findings of the 9/11 Commission and revealing many startling, unknown elements of the day's events. The reader is taken right to the front lines of the heroic response that fateful morning as thousands of air traffic controllers, military commanders, jet fighter pilots, and commercial pilots with flights in the air snapped into stirring action. She brings readers to the hot spot of each split-second decision, taking them inside the cockpits, the control towers, the fighter jets, and the military battle cabs to bring to life the intensity of the firsthand struggles to grasp what was happening and how to respond. From the shocking moment that American Flight 11 fails to respond to a controller's call to the announcement that the last commercial flight has safely landed and military jets rule the skies, Touching History is a powerful and deeply moving nonfiction thriller that is a vital addition to the country's understanding of a day that changed our nation.