William Langewiesche
Journalist, author
by Curtis D. Whiting, with Gordon J. Whiting
Master of long-form journalism
William Langewiesche was an American journalist and author. He excelled at magazine journalism, crafting deep investigative essays on war, terrorism, national security, and aviation disasters.
Langewiesche (pronounced long’-uh-veesha), began his career writing articles for Flying magazine. His father, a standout test pilot for the Navy’s Corsair fighter planes, had taught him to fly before he was old enough to drive. From there he moved up cover stories for The Atlantic and Vanity Fair. In more recent years, he wrote for the New York Times Magazine.
| “So much of who we are is where we have been.” —from The Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos, and Crime | |
He is the author of several works of non-fiction including the best-selling American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center, on the cleanup process at the site of the Twin Towers. He also wrote Aloft: Thoughts on the Experience of Flight, Sahara Unveiled: A Journey Across the Desert, Inside the Sky: A meditation on Flight, and The Outlaw Sea: A World of Freedom, Chaos, and Crime.
He earned two National Magazine Awards. In 2007 he won for “Rules of Engagement,” about the killing of 24 unarmed civilians by U.S. Marines in 2005 in Haditha, Iraq; and in 2002 for “The Crash of EgyptAir 990,” about a flight that went down in the Atlantic Ocean in 1999 with the loss of all 217 people aboard.
He was 70 years old.
