Eight crew members and 37 passengers — many from the Kansas City area — died in one of the deadliest air crashes in U.S. history. A book explores how, for some residents and families who responded to the disaster, the impacts can be lasting.

Author Enfys McMurry says, when she started writing about the crash of Continental Airlines Flight 11, she struggled with the story's structure.

“For some reason, I want to write history in the present tense,” says McMurry.

While the tragedy she writes about took place 63 years ago, McMurry examines the event minute by minute, starting on May 22, 1962.

That night, aviation officials lost radar contact with the Boeing 707 near the Iowa-Missouri border during a routine flight from Chicago to Kansas City.

A loud bang was heard in the sky. Shortly aft

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