He plumbs the hearts and minds of passengers as they pray, bargain with God, plot their strategies for survival, and sacrifice themselves to save others. Drawing on interviews with hundreds of survivors, crew, and airport and rescue personnel, Laurence Gonzales, a commercial pilot himself, captures, minute by minute, the harrowing journey of pilots flying a plane with no controls and flight attendants keeping their calm in the face of certain death. No one has ever attempted the complete reconstruction of a crash of this magnitude. Miraculously, 184 of 296 passengers lived. And then people began emerging from the summer corn that lined the runways. The rescuers didn't move at first: nobody could possibly survive that crash. The plane slammed onto the runway and burst into a vast fireball. "A richly detailed story that is equal parts heartbreaking, inspiring…and full of fascinating science…masterful." -San Francisco ChronicleĪs hundreds of rescue workers waited on the ground, United Airlines Flight 232 wallowed drunkenly over the bluffs northwest of Sioux City.
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