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Written by a prize-winning journalist who interviewed survivors, their families, and family members of those who died following the 1995 crash of a small commuter plane in rural Georgia, this remarkable book provides a deeply disturbing, moving, and powerful account of their subjective experience during both those nine minutes and twenty seconds and the following 2 1/2 years. Pomerantz conducted these interviews utilizing what self psychologists call the “empathic mode” (Chernus, 1988) in order to capture the essence of their subjective experience. As a result, the book conveys the diversity of our subjective responses to life-threatening situations, both acutely and through the grueling process of healing from the internal disruption and fragmentation generated by them. Long-term adaptation ranged from those who grew as a result of this traumatic experience, some even interpreting it as a “second chance” at life, to those who become chronically dysfunctional because the crisis meant confirmation of their pre-existing feelings of hopelessness and helplessness.
Given our recently heightened awareness of vicarious traumatization, I was not surprised to find myself shaken by reading such a vivid account of the irony and randomness of real life events. Some who died were sure they would live, while others who were certain their lives were over survived physically, only to be besieged with ongoing physical and emotional pain, including survivor guilt. The pilot, Ed Gannaway, liked the Brasilia aircraft so much that he had been quoted as saying “I think I can get one down in a field somewhere if I have to.” Two closely related passengers were reunited following treatment of their injuries in separate