R.I.P. William Langewiesche
June 18, 2025
WILLIAM LANGEWIESCHE, pilot and celebrated journalist, has passed away at age 70.
Langewiesche’s articles covered a lot of ground, from the 9/11 attacks to the Iraq War to nuclear proliferation. But it’s his air crash chronicles, which appeared in Vanity Fair, the Atlantic, and the New York Times, that to me are the most unforgettable. His accounts of EgyptAir 990, the 2006 midair collision over the Amazon, and the disappearance of MH370, among others, are the best examples of aviation journalism I’ve ever read.
William was a National Magazine Awards finalist eight times, and held a degree in cultural anthropology from Stanford. Not your typical reporter or your typical aviation nerd. He was on another level. In an era of “content creation” and slapdash news coverage, his meticulously researched stories and vivid narrative style will be sorely missed. Nobody did it better.
I never met William, but we exchanged emails and phone calls many times, and he was kind enough to contribute a blurb to my book.
His father was Wolfgang Langewiesche, author of the seminal art-of-flying primer, “Stick and Rudder,” which has been in print since 1944.
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Just over 10 years ago, I spent a couple nights at the Orange Hill Beach Inn (Nassau) and found in my room a magazine (might have been the Atlantic) left behind by William Langewiesche — his name and address were on the mailing label. I was already familiar with his writing and was excited to find this bit of personal ephemera.