Nine Minutes, Twenty Seconds: The Tragedy and Triumph of ASA Flight 529 by Gary Pomerantz
Flight attendant Robin Fech told passengers to remove pens and other sharp objects from their pockets. Take off your eyeglasses, she instructed, and pour your drinks into the seat-back pockets. Two rows forward, a Diet Coke in hand, Jennifer Grunbeck reached for the seat-back pocket. Don't you think this will make a mess?, Jean Brucato asked her. I think, Grunbeck said, that they are more concerned with what's going on outside the plane. In 1995 29 people boarded a small commuter plane expecting nothing more than an ordinary journey. Soon after take-off a propeller blade shattered, destroying an engine and leaving their plane unable to stay airborne. It hit the ground nine minutes and twenty seconds later. All of us have wondered, however fleetingly, what would happen if something like this went wrong. How would I feel? What would I do? What would others do? Would I survive? Nineteen people on board that day did survive. Gary Pomerantz draws on hundreds of hours of interviews with them, their families, and the families of those who died, to create an intensely moving, compelling real-life drama. This is not a book about aeroplanes, it's about the heroism and humanity in all of us. And it will stay with you long after you've turned the last page.