William Langewiesche

“Leave No Soldier Behind”: The Unsolved Mystery of the Soldier Who Died in the Watchtower

Is the Army botching its investigations into noncombatant deaths?

“The Clock Is Ticking”: Inside the Worst U.S. Maritime Disaster in Decades

A recording salvaged from three miles deep tells the story of the doomed “El Faro,” a cargo ship engulfed by a hurricane.

American Ground

Columbia's Last Flight

The inside story of the investigation—and the catastrophe it laid bare

House of War

After Ramush Haradinaj led Kosovo’s bloody fight for independence from Serbia, becoming provisional prime minister, he was tried for war crimes by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague. In a clash of 21st-century justice and 15th-century laws, Haradinaj came out the winner.

How to Get a Nuclear Bomb

It wouldn’t be easy. But it wouldn’t be impossible. A reporter travels the world to find the weaknesses a terrorist could exploit

How U.S. Soldier Jess Cunningham Exposed a War Crime in Iraq

William Langewiesche dissects the murder of four Iraqi prisoners, the military’s response, and how one warrior fought to become a better man.

Meet G4S, the Contractors Who Go Where Governments and Armies Can’t—or Won’t

William Langewiesche watches as contractors from the security behemoth clean up after an explosion in a crowded souk in South Sudan.

New York Underground: A Centuries-Old Underworld of Caverns, Squatters, and Unmarked Doors

William Langewiesche follows three men who navigate the dangers of what lies beneath New York.

Rules of Engagement

On November 19, 2005, in Haditha, during Kilo Company's third tour of duty in Iraq, a land mine planted by insurgents exploded beneath a Humvee, killing a 20-year-old Marine. What happened next—the slaughter of 24 Iraqi men, women, and children—was not entirely an aberration. These actions were rooted in the very conduct of the war.

Should Airplanes Be Flying Themselves?

Airline pilots were once the heroes of the skies. Today, in the quest for safety, airplanes are meant to largely fly themselves. Which is why the 2009 crash of Air France Flight 447, which killed 228 people, remains so perplexing and significant. William Langewiesche explores how a series of small errors turned a state-of-the-art cockpit into a death trap.

Slam and Jam

For all the reports of equipment failures and “close calls” and controller burnout, the nation's air-traffic-control system is in fact far less precarious, in terms of safety, than people imagine it to be. The real threat to the system’s integrity has as yet received little attention.

The 10-Minute Mecca Stampede That Made History

Investigating the most lethal in a long history of Mecca disasters—in 2015, when some 2,400 pilgrims were crushed or trampled to death on their way to the holy city—William Langewiesche reveals the cause: not “God’s will,” as the authorities claim, but the arrogance and dishonesty of the Saudi regime.

The Crash of EgyptAir 990

Two years afterward the U.S. and Egyptian governments are still quarreling over the cause; a clash that grows out of cultural division, not factual uncertainty. A look at the flight data from a pilot's perspective, with the help of simulations of the accident, points to what the Egyptians must already know: the crash was caused not by any mechanical failure but by a pilot's intentional act

The Dark Romance and Grim Reality of Life in the French Foreign Legion

Legionnaires need war, and Afghanistan is winding down. But there's always the hopeless battle against rogue gold miners in French Guiana . . .

The Distant Executioner

During World War II, snipers were seen as a spooky, merciless “Murder Inc.” by other soldiers—the brutal intimacy of their kills made them a breed apart. But in Afghanistan, where avoiding civilian deaths is a top priority, U.S. military sharpshooters may have found the war that needs them most. Going inside the world of Texas Army National Guardsman “Russ Crane,” who has dropped a Taliban fighter at 806 meters, the author discovers the sniper’s special talents and torments, and why it helps, in Crane’s view, to have God on your side.

The Lessons of ValuJet 592

As a reconstruction of this terrible crash suggests, in complex systems some accidents may be "normal"—and trying to prevent them all could even make operations more dangerous

The Million Dollar Nose

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The World in Its Extreme

<em>It is the hottest place in the world, and the driest. It is home to thriving commerce and to desperate, hopeless poverty. It is the Sahara, an eternal source of fascination and terror</em>

US Airways Flight 1549: Anatomy of a Miracle

Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, the pilot who landed US Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River last January, was justly celebrated for his skill and courage. Less has been revealed about other players in the drama: those enigmatic geese, the engines they struck, a pioneering French engineer, and an unsung hero—the Airbus A320 itself.