Quick Reads: “The Skies Belong to Us” by Brendan I. Koerner


 

The Skies Belong To Us cover

The Skies Belong to Us: Love and Terror in the Golden Age of Hijacking

By Brendan I. Koerner

CROWN PUBLISHERS

Forty years ago, during a more innocent age of air travel, skyjackers were motley idealists who just wanted a one-way trip out of the country—typically to Havana. In 1972, Willie Roger Holder and Catherine Marie Kerkow pulled off the longest-distance hijacking in US history, armed with discontent against the Vietnam War and a dozen joints—which Holder smoked in first class. Brendan Koerner tracks the duo’s adventures, from their mingling with Black Panthers in Algeria to schmoozing with celebs in Paris. Predictably, their sojourn soured—and so did hijacking’s golden age, as more-frequent and violent in-flight incidents brought about the metal detectors and security lines we know and love today.

This review originally appeared in our July/August issue of Mother Jones. 


If you buy a book using a Bookshop link on this page, a small share of the proceeds supports our journalism.

Fact:

Mother Jones was founded as a nonprofit in 1976 because we knew corporations and billionaires wouldn't fund the type of hard-hitting journalism we set out to do.

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

Fact:

Today, reader support makes up about two-thirds of our budget, allows us to dig deep on stories that matter, and lets us keep our reporting free for everyone. If you value what you get from Mother Jones, please join us with a tax-deductible donation today so we can keep on doing the type of journalism 2024 demands.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate