Whipped Cream Difficulties

William Langewiesche, writer.

He wrote a fair amount of stuff about aviation, especially a famous piece on EgyptAir 990.

Mr. Langewiesche’s account of the EgyptAir crash in 1999, which was profoundly enriched by his own aviation background, blamed a suicidal co-pilot. Egyptian officials refused to accept that conclusion, a response, he wrote, that was rooted in political and cultural chauvinism.

I used to be an admirer of his work, especially his aviation stuff. I generally try to avoid speaking ill of the dead when I write these obits, but there are some things I think need to be said about Mr. Langewiesche’s work.

Writing about Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger III’s famous landing of a commercial airliner in the Hudson River in 2009, Mr. Langewiesche made the case that that injury-free belly flop was a testament more to modern airplane technology than to the heroism of the pilot.
Captain Sullenberger took issue with that account, telling The New York Times that Mr. Langewiesche’s book about the episode, “Fly by Wire,” contained “misstatements of fact.”

…

His 2002 book, “American Ground: Unbuilding The World Trade Center,” based on a three-part series in The Atlantic, was reported over six months at ground zero as he meticulously covered the cleanup after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Unmentioned in the obit: his accusation that members of the NYFD looted stores at ground zero before the towers collapsed. I think it is fair to say that accusation has been refuted.

Mr. Black, who sent his report to Mr. Langewiesche’s publisher, included a letter in which he asserted that Mr. Langewiesche ”passed off demonstrably unfounded rumor as plain fact, with a reckless disregard for both elementary procedures of verification and the likely harm his reporting would cause.”

Also unmentioned in the obit: his involvement in the Chevron Corp. v. Donziger pollution case.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2025 at 3:14 pm and is filed under Media, Obits, Planes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.