The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking by Brendan I. KoernerMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
In 1972, two lovers decided to escape their downtrodden, small-time lives by hijacking a plane. Koerner follows their story from beginning to end, while also giving us a fascinating overview of the hijacking "golden age". We read not only the stories of individual hijackers, who are generally a desperate, ill-prepared lot, but also how government and airlines struggled to adapt as the crime became more and more romanticized. Among other things, we see the US government in the pocket of industry (surprise, surprise), voting down security measures because they would slow down passengers by ten minutes; Fidel Castro gladly receiving hijacked flights, so he could lock up the hijackers and sell the planes back to American companies; the FBI, hearteningly/quaintly loath to shoot-to-kill; and the French, who love ze passion of ze crime. It's a great read that covers a lot of ground, and while I may not like an airport queue, at least now I can appreciate it.
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