Nine Minutes, Twenty Seconds: The Tragedy & Triumph of ASA Flight 529 - Hardcover

Pomerantz, Gary M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0609606336 ISBN 13: 9780609606339

Publisher: Crown, 2001

Synopsis

“A deeply moving account of the extraordinary strengths that ordinary people can display when tragedy confronts them. As emotionally powerful a book as you are likely ever to read.”
–David J. Garrow, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Bearing the Cross

In August 1995, twenty-six passengers and a crew of three board a commuter plane in Atlanta headed for Gulfport, Mississippi. Shortly after takeoff they hear an explosion and, looking out the windows on the left side, see a mangled engine lodged against the wing. From that moment, nine minutes and twenty seconds elapse until the crippled plane crashes in a west Georgia hayfield–nine minutes and twenty seconds in which Gary Pomerantz takes readers deep into the hearts and minds of the people aboard, each of whom prepares in his or her own way for what may come.

Ultimately, nineteen people survive both the crash and its devastating aftermath, all of them profoundly affected by what they have seen and, more important, what they have done to help themselves and others.

This is not so much a book about a plane crash as it is a psychologically illuminating real-life drama about ordinary people and how they behave in extraordinary circumstances. Each of us has wondered what we would do to survive a life-threatening situation: Would I survive? How would I conduct myself–would I act to save others in need or only myself? Would others try to save me? How would I be affected by the experience? Judging by what is revealed in Nine Minutes, Twenty Seconds, the answers are surprisingly optimistic.

In telling the remarkable stories of these twenty-nine men and women, Gary Pomerantz has written one of the most compelling books in recent memory. Open to any page and you’ll immediately be drawn into the dramatic pull of the narrative. But on a deeper level, Nine Minutes, Twenty Seconds speaks as powerfully about our capacity to care for others as it does about the strength of our will to live. This rich and rewarding book will linger in your mind long after you turn the last page.

About this title

Review:

An American could fly on a turboprop run by a regional carrier once per day and not expect to die in a crash for 8,000 years, according to one estimate. That's small consolation to the 29 people who found themselves on ASA Flight 529 in 1995, when a faulty propeller cracked and destroyed one of their plane's engines. As Gary M. Pomerantz notes in Nine Minutes, Twenty Seconds--the title refers to the length of time between the engine blowing and impact--"Of all the emergency checklists, there was none on how to fly with one wing." Pomerantz says his book is "not about a plane falling, but the human spirit rising." That's only part right. Nine Minutes, Twenty Seconds has plenty of human-interest angles, but it mainly holds a morbid fascination akin to rubbernecking at the scene of a highway accident. Ever wonder what people do when they know they're about to crash and believe they might die? Herein lie the answers. (Unexpectedly, they don't scream.) Pomerantz conducted hundreds of interviews for this book, from the flight's 19 survivors to family members of the deceased to the mechanic who refurbished the bad propeller before it went back on the plane. It is by turns interesting, poignant, and harrowing. Readers drawn to stories of adversity will find it riveting. --John Miller

From the Back Cover:

Words like shattering and riveting don’t come close to capturing the impact of this fine book, the most powerful I’ve read in a very long time. The experiences of its heroes–and there is no better way to describe the men and women who populate its pages–will move and haunt for a good long while.” –Erik Larson, author of Isaac’s Storm

“I loved Nine Minutes, Twenty Seconds. While reading it, there were times I became so fraught I thought I couldn’t go on, but I simply couldn’t tear myself away. Ultimately, this book is an ode to the beauty and dignity of the human spirit.” –Dominick Dunne

“Gary Pomerantz ventures where lesser writers might fear to go. Nine Minutes, Twenty Seconds moves so surely through the story that the reader is left saddened but not horrified, and reminded of the essential humanity that can emerge in such moments of great drama.” –William Langewiesche, author of Inside the Sky: A Meditation on Flight

“What is it about the power of certain combinations of words to pull you in, to suck you in, so that you can’t turn the pages fast enough and the outside world falls away? Gary Pomerantz has written pages that leave you breathless; you tear through them like a late passenger sprinting down an airport terminal. When you pull up, you feel windblown, as if you’ve stood in front of a propeller plane revving up.” –Melissa Fay Greene, author of Praying for Sheetrock

“Nine Minutes, Twenty Seconds has the power of myth and the immediacy of a next-door neighbor. Gary Pomerantz has performed a breathtaking feat: he has written a modern-day fable that’s somehow about each of us, our desire to fly, and our willingness to soar again. Nine Minutes, Twenty Seconds will tap into your deepest dreams – and ultimately inspire you to make sure they come true.” –Bruce Feiler, author of Walking the Bible

“There is an indescribable thrill while reading reporting like this. Fact by fact, one precious detail after another, all gathered by a reporter using his feet, Gary Pomerantz gives us flight attendant Robin Fech, seconds away from a crash, calling out, ‘brace position,’ right out of chapter one, page 23 of her manual. In the flames on the ground, she wanted to take a man’s sneakers off so she could pull off his pants. When she looked again, the sneakers were not there. They had melted onto the soles of his feet. This is how Gary Pomerantz reports his book and this is how chilling his facts make it.” –Jimmy Breslin

About this edition

• Publisher: Crown
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0609606336
• ISBN 13: 9780609606339
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304