Around midnight on June 17th, 1979, Air New England flight 248 crashed into the woods near Yarmouth on Cape Cod. En route to Hyannis, the plane came down just two and a half miles off course, but it wasn't until one of the crash's survivors made her way to the airport that the airline employees and passengers' loved ones alike found out happened to the plane. The pilot was dead, and the other eight survivors, meanwhile, waited as rescue teams navigated the Cape's notorious summer fog to find the crash site. Sabbag survived a broken back and never saw any of the others again. Thirty years later, he returns to try to come to terms with what happened to them all, during and after the crash.
A master storyteller, with a striking economical style, Bob Sabbag effortlessly weaves between then and now, and conveys to the reader just how fresh his scars sometimes feel. Memory and survival emerge as the story's main characters, and we watch Bob's struggle to piece together the night as he remembers it, and the night as experienced by all of the others involved. Interviews with the other survivors, rescuers and families building and emotional and gripping synthesis of their memories into Bob's own narrative. While the book makes clear that no one from that night emerged unchanged, the tone is inspirational, and thrives on time's inevitable forward motion. Readers are swept up by the harrowing experience of the crash, and hypnotized by Bob's graceful exploration into his processing of what really happened.
Media Buzz
On Point - February 20, 2014 On Point - May 28, 2013
© 2003-2026