Have You Heard the One About the Oregon Airplane Hijackers?

By AARON MESH

A fun literary event just fell out of the sky.

Brendan I. Koerner's book on 1970s airplane hijacking, The Skies Belong to Us, is gathering acclaim as the summer's best true-crime read. (Rightly so: It's a blast, often hilarious and bizarrely affecting.)

Wired magazine's contributing editor tells the stories of dozens of "skyjackers"—but pays special attention to two.

"There is an absorbing tale to tell about each of the forty American skyjackers who made 1972 such a perilous year to fly," Koerner writes. "But none is as captivating as that of Willie Roger Holder and Catherine Marie Kerkow, the young couple who took control of Western Airlines Flight 701 as it soared past Mount Rainier."

Holder and Kerkow met in her hometown of Coos Bay, Oregon. And that's where they wanted their hijacked plane to land.

This Sunday, Aug. 11, Koerner reads about Oregon's skyjackers at Ristretto Roasters' new location at 555 NE Couch St. The reading starts at 7:30 pm.

If somehow you're not already intrigued, here's the publisher's book trailer for The Skies Belong to Us.

WWeek 2015

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