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"The Devil at 37,000 Feet"

Where: Brazil
December 10, 2008 at 5:00 PM | by pbb | 3 Comments

The main event--for us anyway--in the January issue of Vanity Fair* is a piece called "The Devil at 37,000 Feet," about the incredible mid-air collision over Brazil in 2006 that killed 154 people and sucked survivor and aviation journalist Joe Sharkey into an incredible vortex of storytelling, xenophobia and international finger pointing. William Langewiesche, who is, in an interview about the article on vanityfair.com, cooler than the other side of Barack Obama's pillow, wrote the piece.

Perhaps garnering as much attention as the story itself are the cockpit tapes from both aircraft, hosted on the magazine's website. While VF says the voice recordings are newsworthy, the International Federation of Air Line Pilots' Associations says such use of cockpit voice recordings "for public entertainment" is an outrage.

* Owned, like Jaunted, by Conde Nast.

Related Stories:
· The Devil at 37,000 Feet [VF]
· The Recordings from the Gol Boeing 737 [VF, MP3]
· The Recordings from the ExcelAire N600XL [VF, MP3]
· Pilots Outraged by Release of Recordings [AP, via Google]
· 2006 Travel Awards: Joe Sharkey for the Best Travel Media Story of the Year [Jaunted]

[Rendering of the collision: Wikimedia]

3 Comments

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  1. Sharkey

    Jaunted Member

    Langewiesche and Brazil and Me

    Hey, I like you guys. You're fair and funny even when you're being snotty, and you understand that travel is, essentially, humorous. Travel is a regular riot (in retrospect, of course). If I could figure out a way to link to you on my blog, circulation in the high double-digits, I would. But I would like to say this about your linking to that fatuous piece that dick-wad William Langewiesche wrote in Vanity Fair's January issue on the horrible Brazil mid-air collision at 37,000 over the Amazon, in which I was a survivior. Langewiesche spins a fantastic narrative of the scene on the Legacy 600 business jet that collided with the Brazilian Gol Airlines 737. It's full of quotes and motivations and this-must-be's. Man, you are right there in the cockpit as the business jet, on which I was a hitchhiker, goes down. Trouble is, Langewiesche never tried to contact me, though he imputes to me motives and words, and inaccurately says I was assigned to do a story on the flight (not so, at least not till it crashed). Far worse, Langwiesche in several instances clearly suggests and in one instance overtly states that my presence as a reporter on the plane contributed to the purported tension that allowed the American pilots to become allegedly rattled and make purported mistakes that led to the crash. Dunno, I'm admittedly an old-fart city editor. "Wait, you didn't call the guy for comment?" ... "Wait, you didn't try to talk to ANY of the survivors??" I know the guy has a reputation, but from my experience, a guy who behaved like that on an important story would be on the night cops beat in an instant. And I'd be expecting the call from the damned lawyers. Meanwhile, the Brazilians have sued me for "defaming" the country. I tell you, no good deed goes unpunished. #
    December 30, 2008 at 10:41 PM
    #Permalink

  1. Jaunted

    Jaunted Contributing Editor

    Thanks

    Appreciate the comments! For those that want to know more, Sharkey's posted lots of thoughts on his blog.
    December 31, 2008 at 8:00 AM
    Parent #Permalink

  1. JetSetCD

    Jaunted Member

    first-hand is best

    For what it's worth, I've only read Joe's account of the crash. I skipped the Vanity Fair piece.
    December 31, 2008 at 2:10 PM
    #Permalink

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