The Charlotte Observer wins national award for 9/11/74 plane crash series
The Charlotte Observer on Wednesday won a first-place award in the 2025 National Headliner Awards competition for its series, “9/11/74: The Untold Story of Charlotte’s Deadliest Plane Crash.”
Staff writers Théoden Janes and Scott Fowler and staff photographer Jeff Siner won the award in the category of “newspaper series not in a top 20 media market.”
The 91st annual contest honored the best print, radio, television and online journalism in the U.S. published in 2024.
The five-part series weaved a narrative with first-person accounts of survivors of the crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 and family members of passengers and crew who died. The plane crashed in a cornfield and stand of trees more than 3 miles from Charlotte’s airport, killing 72 of the 82 people aboard.
“It should have been an easy flight to Charlotte,” Janes and Fowler started part 1. “But then something went horribly wrong.”
About the series, the judges wrote:
“Superior writing and research about a long forgotten Sept. 11, 1974, plane crash.”
The reporters “tracked down survivors and family members to craft a series that highlighted how much air travel safety has improved, memories and outcomes from a horrid incident. The value and use of memories was captured in the narrative with gut-wrenching text.”
Rana Cash, executive editor of The Charlotte Observer, said the project “exemplifies the Observer’s commitment to what we in the industry call ‘Big J journalism.’ That is, storytelling that resonates with readers, is revelatory and has impact.
“We are pleased for this national recognition of the tireless effort by the team of Observer and McClatchy journalists in resurfacing one of the most tragic days in our city’s history with compassion, precision and care,” Cash said.
This story was originally published April 30, 2025 at 4:39 PM.