Confirmed: NYT Article on Miracle Philly Landing *Wasn’t* Made Up


The Atlantic‘s James Fallows, an expert of sorts on air travel, was intensely skeptical of the much-scrutinized New York Times Magazine “Lives” story about a man whose plane was supposed to crash, before circling Philadelphia for two hours and making an emergency landing. (Fallows is still skeptical.) Yesterday, Times Magazine editor Hugo Lindgren emailed him a response. It reads, in part:

Some commenters have seized on certain details of “The Plane Was About to Crash. Now What?” by Noah Gallagher Shannon in order to question whether this emergency landing happened (and perhaps even whether the author was on the flight). But there is simply no question. The author was on Frontier Airlines flight #727 on June 30, 2011, from Washington to Denver. It was an Airbus 320. The author sat in seat 12A. This flight was diverted to Philadelphia. The FAA reports that  the pilot declared an emergency due to a low hydraulics indicator light and that upon landing the plane needed to be towed to the gate. Frontier airlines confirms that an Airbus A320 experienced “a maintenance issue on departure from Washington DCA.  The flight diverted to Philadelphia due to easier access. The aircraft and all passengers landed safely.”

Sooooo, does PHL still has ““the best standby emergency personnel?”