With this being the anniversary of MH370's disappearance, I thought it might be nice to reread William Langewiesche fantastic piece about the disappearance.
Netflix came out with a great documentary in 2023: MH370–the Plane that Disappeared. Highly recommend. Heart wrenching all those families are still searching for answers.
Interestingly enough, he says this in one of his books:
>I never wanted to write about flight. It is a genre too easily confused with false heroics, or, worse, with tedious transportation history of the British plane-spotter kind. So each time I had to be pushed.
I think that's part of what keeps MH370 so prescient for me. At this point, I don't know that we would learn much from the wreckage that we don't already know. We know more or less why and how the plane crashed, even if we don't know the pilot's motivations, and we know how the people onboard died. While the flight data recorders could have survived this long, based on everything else Zaharie did, it's likely they were disabled along with everything else, meaning there's no useful information on them.
But still. There's something about knowing, about actually seeing the remains of a plane nestled on the seabed that lends a degree of closure that knowledge itself can never provide. We know what happened, but until we see it, it's all speculation and theory. There's a catharsis in seeing the plane, and I want that too.
Black box recorders should never be turned off or tampered with under any circumstances, if it was found that they had been, it would be a statement in itself.
If the pilot was responsible for the disaster, as it seems like he probably was, he wouldn't really have had much need to switch off the black boxes if he'd planned on killing everyone by depressurising the cabin, and them himself by crashing.
If it were possibly someone else responsible, maybe the black box data might offer some clue to that effect.
Must be nice to have enough money to wander the world pretending to be Indiana Jones. Seriously though somehow the only thing I remembered about this was someone saying on CNN it might be a black hole, I guess I stopped paying attention.
[OP] Quouar | a month ago
Archive link
With this being the anniversary of MH370's disappearance, I thought it might be nice to reread William Langewiesche fantastic piece about the disappearance.
arianrhodd | a month ago
Netflix came out with a great documentary in 2023: MH370–the Plane that Disappeared. Highly recommend. Heart wrenching all those families are still searching for answers.
Thanks for the archive link!
[OP] Quouar | a month ago
I've seen it, and it's mostly conspiracy theories and inaccuracies. It's not particularly good, unfortunately. :(
Halcyon771 | a month ago
William Langewiesche articles are amazing. And his reporting on aviation disasters/tragedies is second to none. RIP
manchegobets | a month ago
What others do you recommend?
d_1_z_z | a month ago
His article about the MS Estonia sinking in the 90s is incredible writing
He did one on the Air France crash as well that was gripping
CheerilyTerrified | a month ago
That article was one of the most distressing articles I have ever read. It was like a real life horror story.
damian2000 | a month ago
Yes, an amazing piece of writing
BroccoliKnob | a month ago
The Estonia piece is one of the best I’ve ever read about anything.
foreignfishes | a month ago
The story of the sinking of the Estonia is included in his book The Outlaw Sea about the lawlessness of the ocean, it’s pretty interesting
from_around_here | a month ago
His magazine piece on the ValuJet crash in Florida is excellent.
jeremyxt | a month ago
I myself am going to look into these.
jeremyxt | a month ago
I'd like to add that his reporting on that EgyptAir suicide crash was gripping, as well.
BowensCourt | a month ago
Read his book on the Sahara!
informallyundecided | a month ago
Interestingly enough, he says this in one of his books:
>I never wanted to write about flight. It is a genre too easily confused with false heroics, or, worse, with tedious transportation history of the British plane-spotter kind. So each time I had to be pushed.
LongTrailEnjoyer | a month ago
Man I remember this article. One of the best articles.
Slight-Potential-219 | a month ago
Non paywall link?
rhubes | a month ago
https://archive.ph/yAb9s
You can make them yourself by going to archive.ph and putting the address in.
cherrycolaareola | a month ago
here you go
AMinMY | a month ago
For all the world's unsolved mysteries, I would love them to find MH370 within my lifetime.
[OP] Quouar | a month ago
I think that's part of what keeps MH370 so prescient for me. At this point, I don't know that we would learn much from the wreckage that we don't already know. We know more or less why and how the plane crashed, even if we don't know the pilot's motivations, and we know how the people onboard died. While the flight data recorders could have survived this long, based on everything else Zaharie did, it's likely they were disabled along with everything else, meaning there's no useful information on them.
But still. There's something about knowing, about actually seeing the remains of a plane nestled on the seabed that lends a degree of closure that knowledge itself can never provide. We know what happened, but until we see it, it's all speculation and theory. There's a catharsis in seeing the plane, and I want that too.
PauL__McShARtneY | a month ago
Black box recorders should never be turned off or tampered with under any circumstances, if it was found that they had been, it would be a statement in itself.
If the pilot was responsible for the disaster, as it seems like he probably was, he wouldn't really have had much need to switch off the black boxes if he'd planned on killing everyone by depressurising the cabin, and them himself by crashing.
If it were possibly someone else responsible, maybe the black box data might offer some clue to that effect.
InvisibleEar | a month ago
I think he probably disabled them because he clearly wanted this to be as big a mystery as possible for whatever reason.
SeaComparison8008 | a month ago
Saving this
InvisibleEar | a month ago
Must be nice to have enough money to wander the world pretending to be Indiana Jones. Seriously though somehow the only thing I remembered about this was someone saying on CNN it might be a black hole, I guess I stopped paying attention.