Writing 'Flight 93' special for Penguins executive

No one who knows Pittsburgh Penguins executive Tom McMillan thought he was out of his league when he took on the challenge of writing the definitive book on Flight 93 and the onboard battle that occurred before the jet crashed in a Somerset County, Pa., field on Sept. 11, 2001.

"I don't think Tom has passing interests," Pittsburgh sports talk show host Joe Starkey said. "He has obsessions."

McMillan has spent three decades in the hockey world as a writer, sports talk show host and the Penguins' vice president of communication. But his passion for history is well-established. McMillan has taken care of Penguins business more than once on the phone while walking a Civil War battlefield. He once wrote an important Penguins news release from a bench at Gettysburg.

"Sports are people's escape from their job, their real life," he said. "But when you work in sports, you need an escape from sports, so history is my sports."

McMillan's book is called Flight 93: The Story, The Aftermath, and the Legacy of American Courage on 9/11, issued by Lyons Publishing.

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"It began with my quest to learn the story for myself," McMillan said.

He estimates he made about 20 trips to the crash site, simply because he was fascinated by the story of what happened when passengers tried to take back the hijacked plane. Writing a book was not part of his plan.

That began when family members of the crash victims asked the Penguins to honor Somerset coroner Wally Miller, a season ticketholder, at a game.

McMillan was happy to oblige, and then met Miller, who invited him to see an area of the crash site that is not open to the public.

"It is surreal," McMillan said. "I really felt we were walking on sacred grounds."

McMillan was surprised when he was told several hundred oral histories had been collected from first responders, such as law enforcement officials, townspeople and medical workers. He told Miller someone needed to do a book.

"When (Miller) said, 'Are you telling me you would put your writer's hat back on?' it stunned me because I didn't mean me," McMillan said.

Originally, McMillan expected to self-publish the book, but quickly realized there was enough interest in this event to attract an agent and a mainstream publisher.

McMillan spent two years on the project, starting during the 2012-13 NHL lockout when he had more free time than usual. He read transcripts from the oral history, scoured the 9/11 report, reviewed trial documents, combed magazine articles, reviewed a multitude of other documents and watched a National Transportation Safety Board animated simulation. He was able to sync up the cockpit recorder voices with how the plane was maneuvering.

"I believe they got to the cockpit," he said. "There was chaos at the end. ... One of the passengers yells, 'Turn it up' and one of the hijackers yells in Arabic, 'Pull it down.' Is that indication that they were struggling for control? I believe it probably was."

As is the case with any historical-based research, McMillan had to draw his own conclusions based on the facts uncovered.

"I've read 10 books on Pickett's Charge, and it's all the same information, but every writer has his own perspective," McMillan said.

McMillan wrote two chapters on what he thinks happened during the flight.

"We are never going to know everything that happened on board, but the two chapters is as close as we can come to knowing what happened in sequence," he said.

Reader reviews on Amazon.com have been overwhelmingly favorable. "He was determined to tell this story the way no one had, and I think he succeeded," said Starkey of 93.7 The Fan. "The book is amazing."

Starkey said McMillan's strength as a writer "is his mind for details and his flair as a storyteller."

When McMillan decided to write the book, he told Penguins President David Morehouse, who understands better than most that sports executives have other passions. Morehouse worked in the Clinton administration and on the presidential campaigns of Al Gore and John Kerry before joining the Penguins.

Morehouse said he often jokes that if he ever returned to politics he'd want to take McMillan with him because of his abilities.

"I encouraged him to write (the book)," Morehouse said. "I said, 'You are a writer. That's what you do.' I know he's a history buff and knows more about Gettysburg than anyone I know, and I know he is very passionate about what happened on 9/11 and trying to find more information. He had already been thinking deeply about what happened and the significance it has had in our country."

Morehouse said no one should be surprised that a former sportswriter could tackle an emotional, politically charged story like Flight 93.

"People who report on sports are talented people as talented as any so-called serious reporter. They are just passionate on sports," Morehouse said. "I think locally here about (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) columnist Gene Collier and how eloquent his writing is. Some of the best writers in journalism were sportswriters. Just look back in history. There is a tradition of great journalism in sports."

McMillan said he came away from his research believing Flight 93 is an "astonishing story of bravery and heroism that cannot and should not be forgotten."

He felt as if he had given this project his best effort.

"When I turned in this project, I said that's the book I wanted to write," McMillan said, "and I've rarely said that about anything I've ever written."