The unbelievable true story of three pilots flying a routine Federal Express flight who must call on their inner courage, strength, and ability to stop a bitter, suicidal hijacker from killing them, and thousands of people below.

David Sanders, Jim Tucker, and Andy Peterson had taken off on a regular ?out-and-back,? delivering and picking up packages for FedEx's next-day service. They had one jumpseat passenger, an off-duty colleague who they assumed was simply taking advantage of the FedEx perk allowing virtually all employees to ride the company jets for free. The shock came twenty minutes later.

Before the plane had reached its normal cruising altitude, the lone passenger attacked the pilots with hammers and a spear gun. He'd had his diabolical plan in the works for months: by crashing the plane into the Federal Express Memphis hub, he'd ruin the company, which he felt had treated him unfairly. With superhuman strength fueled by sheer fury, the attacker struck the pilots again and again.

What he didn't count on was the skill and intelligence of the pilots. While Sanders and Peterson tried to stop the relentless battering, copilot Tucker swung the aircraft into dangerous flight maneuvers in an attempt to literally knock the man off his feet.

In Hijacked, Dave Hirschman vividly re-creates this hair-raising battle of wills, giving each pilot's point of view and drawing on his own experiences as a pilot to take us inside that fateful day.

What happens when a routine flight becomes a fight for survival at 20,000 feet?

• Workplace Violence: The attacker wasn't a stranger?he was an off-duty colleague with a grudge, armed with hammers and a spear gun, and a plan to destroy the company by crashing the plane.
• Cockpit Battle: A desperate, hand-to-hand struggle for survival unfolds as the three-man crew fights back against their armed and relentlessly brutal assailant.
• Extreme Airmanship: To throw the hijacker off balance, copilot Jim Tucker pushes the massive DC-10 into rolls and dives it was never designed to survive, turning the jet itself into a weapon.
• A True Story of Heroism: Based on extensive interviews and pilot testimony, this is the meticulously researched, minute-by-minute account of how training, teamwork, and raw determination saved the flight.