[Luc]

I could tell from the title this was going to be written by William Langewiesche. He really knows how to spin a good yarn.

All his articles and books seem to be movie-worthy. I'm not entirely convinced reality is that exciting, though.

[hyperpallium]

The banter at the start reminded me of the start of Aliens. As transcript quotes, I assume it means James Cameron based it on reality.

The reality in this case was far, far more exciting than you ever want. If anything, the captain had a preternaturally professional calm.

> ship’s anemometer was in disrepair and had been for weeks

Can't measure wind; the co. didn't subscribe to hourly updates; a "software glitch" gave old reports.

[HeyLaughingBoy]

That's a really interesting observation. I first saw Alien with my roommate soon after we had both graduated from Merchant Marine school and he laughingly made a similar comment: "typical sailor behavior."

And honestly, experienced Merchant officers have seen so much shit, it's hard to get them rattled.

[SeanBoocock]

A great example is his treatment of Air France 447: https://www.vanityfair.com/news/business/2014/10/air-france-...

[Stratoscope]

Oh my, you weren't kidding:

On the last day of May in 2009, as night enveloped the airport in Rio de Janeiro, the 216 passengers waiting to board a flight to Paris could not have suspected that they would never see daylight again, or that many would sit strapped to their seats for another two years before being found dead in the darkness, 13,000 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. But that is what happened.

And I thought that name sounded familiar. William is the son of Wolfgang Langewiesche, author of one of the books that taught me how to fly: Stick and Rudder.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stick_and_Rudder

[dreamcompiler]

Yep. S&R is one of the best nonfiction technical books ever, even if you have no particular interest in becoming a pilot.

[andyjohnson0]

A great article. I've read it a couple of times and this part always gets me:

"In the cockpit, the situation was off the scale of test flights. After Dubois arrived, the stall warning temporarily stopped, essentially because the angle of attack was so extreme that the system rejected the data as invalid. This led to a perverse reversal that lasted nearly to the impact: each time Bonin happened to lower the nose, rendering the angle of attack marginally less severe, the stall warning sounded again—a negative reinforcement that may have locked him into his pattern of pitching up, assuming he was hearing the stall warning at all."

They must have been so confused and frightened.

[mathgenius]

His description of the "emotional inertia" that sets in is most terrifying of all. It really gives a feeling for the fear that grips. Instead of saying "they were afraid" he shows it. Good writing indeed.

[jonathanberger]

If you like this article, I recommend finding his other pieces particularly about airplane crashes.

He writes in a gripping manner and normally seems to have done pretty thorough background research, as well as personal experience.

[tptacek]

He has a whole book on maritime incidents (culled from long-form narrative pieces he did at The Atlantic) --- The Outlaw Sea.

[tcopeland]

That looks great, and my local library has a copy, thanks for the pointer!