William Langewiesche, a longtime Atlantic contributor who was dubbed the “Steve McQueen of journalism,” died in June at age 70. A former professional pilot, he was especially renowned for his aviation investigations, particularly the way he could distill complex technical concepts into clear, gripping, writing.
For one of The Atlantic’s most-read stories, Langewiesche pursued a lead about Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, whose mysterious disappearance had spawned theories ranging from the plausible to the downright bizarre. To reconstruct what likely transpired in the flight’s final hours, he traveled along the rim of the Indian Ocean, collecting scraps of information; combed through official accounts; and pressure tested potential causes of the flight’s fateful descent. The result: a tale of tragedy, government conspiracy, and the relentless pursuit of truth—and the most definitive account yet of what really happened to MH370.
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