Samme Chittum, PhD

Editor & Author

Coachella Valley, California

“This is a stunning narrative of an airline disaster narrowly averted and an aircraft maker’s attempt to cover up a fatal flaw.” Ashley Halsey III, transportation writer, Washington Post

Samme Chittum, PhD

Editor & Author

Coachella Valley, California

“This is a stunning narrative of an airline disaster narrowly averted and an aircraft maker’s attempt to cover up a fatal flaw.” Ashley Halsey III, transportation writer, Washington Post

The Tragedy of Flight 242: An excerpt from Southern Storm by Samme Chittum
For years afterward, the scent of jet fuel and scorched hair were powerful sensory cues that transported Sadie Burkhalter Hurst back in time to the day when fire and death invaded her tranquil world. “Most of the time,” she said 40 years later, “you don’t remember it until things trigger those memories.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution
Book review: The Providence Journal
The power of “Southern Storm” remains in Chittum’s reporting before, during and after this tragic event and the amazing stories and reunions that continue to present day.
The Providence Journal
The Flight 981 Disaster: Tragedy, Treachery and the Pursuit of Truth
An in-depth account of one of the worst crashes in the history of aviation. Readers are taken back in time to the year 1974, when the catastrophic blow out of an aft cargo door caused a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 to fall from the sky and explode in the Forest of Ermenonville, near Paris, France, killing all 346 people on board. The story revisits the scene of the crash and chronicles the painstaking detective work of American investigators and British journalists who followed the trail of evidence from France to the McDonnell Douglas plant in Long Beach, California. This riveting account explains how a faulty latch on a cargo door brought down the wide-body jetliner—an incident foretold by a similar crisis on an American Airlines DC-10 over Windsor, Ontario on June 12, 1972. This ripped-from-the headlines tale of a secret “gentleman’s agreement” still resonates, and carries a timely warning about the dangers of a too-cozy relationship between government regulators and a world-renown airplane maker that chose cost-cutting over safety.
Smithsonian Books
Books and Essays Books
A Tale of Two DC-10s
On June 12, 1972, American Airlines Flight 96, a DC-10, broke through a spotty cloud layer over the Canadian industrial city of Windsor, Ontario. Almost five minutes had passed since the wide-body jet had lifted off the runway at Michigan’s Detroit Metrop
Smithsonian Magazine
Family Farm Fights Back After Electrocution of Cows
In 1850, two brothers from Ireland named Devine bought two 30-acre farms in upstate New York outside of the town of Canastota. The Devine clan grew and prospered, consolidating their holdings into one 1,200-acre dairy farm that locals referred to as ''Devine country.'' The Devine family farm was virtually debt free and had never been mortgaged.
The New York Times
Food and Nutrition Animal Welfare Crime and Courts New York Times
In an I.B.M. Village, Pollution Fears Taint Relations With Neighbors
This village, best known as the birthplace of I.B.M., has an unusual look these days. Venting systems, with white plastic tubing that runs from basements to roofs, sprout from 377 houses and businesses. ''This area is taboo now,'' said Tim Davis, who lives on Monroe Avenue. ''And it's going to stay that way.''
The New York Times
Health Environment New York Times
I.B.M. Agrees to Take Steps to Clean Up Polluted Soil
ENDICOTT, N.Y., Aug. 10 - I.B.M. has agreed to a consent order with the state that binds the company, founded in this upstate village, to a course of action to clean up an underground plume of industrial pollution, decades old, that has sent chemical vapors wafting into hundreds of basements. The vapor problem came to light here in 2003 as a result of air-quality tests sought by residents and required by the State Department of Environmental Conservation.
New York Times
Breaking News Environment New York Times
Gotti's Man: Mob Hit Targets Bodyguard
Gotti's bodyguard and chauffer is gunned down in his driveway in Bath Beach, Brooklyn.
New York Daily News
6 People From Dance Camp Are Killed in Crash in Catskills
I helped with reporting at the scene in this story about a fatal car wreck in which five young people from a dance camp and their camp counselor, Irnia Miranova, were killed when the car driven by Miranova veered into oncoming traffic and slammed into a dump truck.
The New York Times
New York Times Breaking News
Married to The Mob
The Wise Guy Wannabes Editor’s Note: Before last week’s racial killing in Bensonhurst, reporters Mark Bauman and Samme Chittum spent several months in the neighborhood. Here is their report. Some of the names and identifying characteristics in this story
The Village Voice
Edmond Mailman Guns Down 21 in Shooting Rampage
An account of the largest mass shooting in Oklahoma's history at the Edmond Post Office on August 20, 1986 that gave rise to the term, "going postal." Law officers and survivors describe a frightening series of events that began about 7 a.m. as Patrick Sherrill arrived at work, carrying a mail sack full of ammunition and three automatic pistols. Sherrill, an expert marksman, began methodically shooting people as he walked along the aisles of the building as terrified workers fled or looked for places to hide. "One young man was lying with his arms full of papers, his eyes wide open, staring at you," said District Attorney Bob Macey,who toured the scene after a police unit tactical unit used a key to open the building at 8:30 a.m.
Tulsa World
Crime and Courts Breaking News
No Way Out
Each year, hundreds of women are killed by ex-husbands and boyfriends., who stalk them obsessively, undeterred by court order. Why has our legal system failed them?
Ladies Home Journal Magazine
Women
Convicted Improperly, Killer Returns to Shelter I.
Payne served six years in the shooting death of his neighbor Curtis Cook, who had been accused of molesting a child, before the State Court of Appeals ruled on Tuesday that the trial jury had been improperly permitted to consider a charge of second-degree murder by depraved indifference. A Suffolk County jury found him guilty of that charge after acquitting him of intentional murder, the higher count.
The New York Times
New York Times Crime and Courts Breaking News
Well, They Grow Arugula. You Call That Farming?; Urban Refugees Remake Dairy Country
Richard Giles has a degree in agriculture and works long hours on 40 acres of rich bottomland. Yet some here in dairy country question his right to call himself a farmer. To them, Mr. Giles and his wife, Holley White, are just two more city people from Brooklyn, raising organic arugula. ''Richard being a vegetable farmer freaks out the dairy farmers,'' said Beth Schneider, 29, who is the daughter of a dairy farmer and works on Mr.
The New York Times
Food and Nutrition Environment
Rare Disease Misdiagnosed in One Case, Tests Find
INGSTON, N.Y, Oct. 15 - New questions arose on Friday about a cluster of deaths believed to be from a rare brain disease in a single county in upstate New York when tests showed that one of the victims appeared to have been misdiagnosed. The victim, Coleen Staccio, 46, died a week ago, and doctors told the family that the cause of death was Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a neurological disorder that afflicts only one in a million people worldwide each year.
The New York Times
New York Times Health Food and Nutrition
Size Doesn't Matter
An in-depth look at workplace discrimination affecting obese and plus-size women and what is being done to raise awareness and change perceptions. Researchers at Yale's Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity found that weight-based bias was "as common as racial discrimination."
Diversity Woman
Health Women

About

Samme Chittum, PhD

Editing

analysis

copyediting

proofreading

CMOS

AP & MLA style

Word.

I'm a writer and editor specializing in creative nonfiction and memoirs. I draw upon four decades of experience in major media and graduate studies in narratology to help writers rethink, refocus and revise. I provide a range of services, including query letters, pitches, proofreading, critiques, developmental editing, and copy editing.

I'm a proud alumna of Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where I was awarded a Pulitzer Traveling Fellowship; I also hold a master’s degree and Ph.D. in English literature and writing practices from Albany University. As a passionate lover of fact-based storytelling, I learned my craft covering crime and breaking news for major media, including The New York Times, the New York Daily News, and the New York Post. While writing my dissertation, a work of historical fiction, I spent two years in Alamos, Mexico, where I volunteered at a free spay and neuter clinic and served on the board of directors of the Alamos Historical Association. I am an ardent defender of press freedoms and an advocate for animal welfare. Over the years, I have been a spokesperson for the rights of journalists and assumed leadership roles in organizations dedicated to protecting freedom of speech and information. I am also an environmentalist, and a friend of animals everywhere.