First published 2026
On September 11, 2001, America endured its deadliest terrorist attack. Jeffrey Robinson reconstructs the military and aviation response through interviews with over 60 American and Canadian witnesses, many speaking publicly for the first time. The book follows fighter pilots on suicide missions to intercept hijacked aircraft, the Air Force One pilot who channeled Tom Cruise under direct threat, and a Secret Service agent who refused the President's order to return to Washington. Robinson takes readers into a White House bunker where officials illegally authorized shooting down civilian planes, into NORAD's Cheyenne Mountain facility as blast doors sealed shut, and into Canadian towns suddenly hosting thousands of diverted passengers. The narrative spans from Alaska, where a general faced down Russian bombers testing American defenses, to air traffic controllers grounding every plane in US airspace. Robinson delivers a minute by minute reconstruction of how split second decisions shaped America's response to unprecedented crisis.
Genres: history, non-fiction, 21st-century, military-history, aviation, american-history
Vibes: documentary-style, fast-paced, gripping, suspenseful, thought-provoking, urgent
Tropes: eyewitness-accounts, historical-documentation, minute-by-minute-reconstruction, multiple-perspectives
Setting: United States, Canada, Alaska, White House, Cheyenne Mountain, NORAD
Period: September 11, 2001, 21st century
272 pages · Hardcover · St. Martin's Press
Content warnings: death, violence