Hijacked

Three crew members were flying an ordinary overnight run for Federal Express, carrying packages for the company's next-day delivery network. Captain David Sanders, first officer Jim Tucker and pilot Andy Peterson had also taken on a single extra passenger, an off-duty colleague who seemed to be using the company's policy that lets nearly all staff ride its jets at no cost.

Twenty minutes into the flight, before the aircraft had climbed to its usual altitude, that passenger turned on the pilots with hammers and a spear gun. He had spent months planning to fly the plane into the company's Memphis hub, aiming to destroy a business he believed had wronged him. He kept striking the crew again and again. The pilots, however, relied on their skill and their teamwork. While Sanders and Peterson tried to halt the attack, Tucker threw the plane into violent maneuvers meant to knock the attacker off his feet.

Dave Hirschman reconstructs this close, desperate contest of wills, presenting each pilot's perspective. Drawing on his own experience as a pilot, he places the reader in the cockpit on that day.