The worst plane disasters in history are the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks that brought down the two World Trade Center towers in New York City. Approximately twenty-eight hundred people died, and the collapsing towers created a nightmarish rescue, recovery, and investigation scene.

With so many people involved from so many agencies, sorting out the mess was a monumental effort.

Once the towers came down, the New York Fire Department and other rescue workers immediately began looking for survivors. Along with numerous volunteers they formed the well-known "bucket brigades" that soon faced a problem: Officials from the FBI and the NTSB did not want criminal evidence from the destroyed airliners tampered with. Arguments ensued over what could be moved where. As federal investigators pieced together background checks on the passenger list, cell phone records from the doomed planes, and air traffic control communications, they quickly linked...