Miles O'Brien (journalist)

Miles O'Brien, 49, is a 26-year broadcast news veteran who has successfully melded a talent for telling complex stories in accessible terms with a lifelong passion for aviation, space and technology.

Based in New York City, he currently serves as CNN's chief technology and environment correspondent. He is also the network’s space and aviation correspondent.

During his 16-year tenure at CNN, he has also anchored a myriad of news and talk programs, including Science and Technology Week, Saturday and Sunday Morning, Talkback Live, Headline News Primetime, Live From…and most recently, American Morning.

O’Brien has received numerous prestigious awards over the years for his coverage of space, aviation, science, technology and the environment.

Most recently, he weathered hurricane Katrina as it came ashore and stayed in the Gulf Coast region for several weeks anchoring CNN’s Peabody and Dupont award winning coverage.

CNN Space Coverage

O’Brien may be best known for his coverage of the US space program. In February of 2003, he led the network’s acclaimed coverage of the loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia. He was on the air live for 16 solid hours helping guide a shocked and saddened country through a national tragedy.

Unknown to viewers at the time, the loss of Columbia represented the sudden end of a long-held dream for O’Brien. Only days before (and after years of negotiations) CNN and NASA had reached an agreement that would have made O’Brien the first journalist to fly to low earth orbit on the space shuttle to visit the International Space Station.

O’Brien has covered every major space story in the past fifteen years: the repair missions to the Hubble Space Telescope; the shuttle dockings at Mir; the launch of the first space station crew from Kazakhstan; several robotic landings on Mars and the private sector endeavors of Burt Rutan and others.

In October of 1998, he co-anchored CNN’s coverage of John Glenn’s return to space with broadcast veteran Walter Cronkite.

In 2000, he produced, shot and wrote a one-hour documentary on the intricate, sometimes-perilous process of readying a space shuttle for flight. "Terminal Count: What it Takes to Make the Space Shuttle Fly" aired in May 2001.

Aviation

O’Brien is a third generation general aviation pilot. He grew up sitting in the right seat of various small Cessnas and Pipers rented by his father, an instrument-rated private pilot. He learned the mechanics of flying while still unable to see over the panel – a skill that served him well years later as he began his training “under the hood” on instruments.

His paternal grandfather (and namesake) earned his private pilot’s license in 1957 while his maternal grandfather, Russell Riley, was an aviation enthusiast who owned a Stinson SR Reliant in the 1930s. A Boston based wool importer who sold raw material to mills in upstate New York, he used the airplane to edge out his competition.

Over the years, O’Brien’s passion for aviation has seeped its way into some award winning broadcast news journalism.

In the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, O'Brien used his flight experience to provide viewers radar tracks of the hijacked flights while the twin towers were still standing. During the Afghanistan and Iraq invasions, he, along with various retired generals, explained the intricacies of military aviation techniques and strategy.

O'Brien has also offered extensive, insightful coverage of the airliner crashes of US Air 427, Valujet 592, TWA 800, Egyptair 990, American 587 and Comair 5191 and others.

He has also brought a unique perspective to coverage of general aviation in award-winning reports on the crashes of John F. Kennedy, Jr, Payne Stewart and Paul Wellstone; the C-150 incursion into the DC ADIZ; the Cory Lidle crash in Manhattan and too many potential gear-up landings to enumerate.

Awards

1986 – Florida Emmy Award “Outstanding Coverage of a Single Breaking News Story” (Reporter) St. Petersburg Chlorine Leak 1989 – Boston/New England Emmy Award “Outstanding News Series” (Producer/Reporter) Boundaries of Fear 1990 – CINE “Golden Eagle” (Producer/Reporter) Boundaries of Fear 1993 – Computer Press Awards “Best Television Program” (Anchor/Correspondent/Writer) CNN Science and Technology Week 1993 – National Association of Science Writers “Science in Society Award” (Anchor/Correspondent/Writer) Sweet Fruit – Bitter Harvest. 1996 – News and Documentary Emmy Award “Outstanding Coverage of a Single breaking News Story” (Anchor) Coverage of the Olympic Park Bombing 2002 – Rotary National Award for Space Achievement “Space Communicator Award” 2002 – National Space Club “Media Award” 2006 – Society of Environmental Journalists “Award for Reporting on the Environment (Anchor/Correspondent/Writer) CNN Presents: Melting Point 2006 – National Press Club “Robert L Kozik Award for Environmental Reporting – First Place” (Anchor/Correspondent/Writer) CNN Presents: Melting Point 2006 – Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association “Max Karant Award for Excellence in General Aviation Journalism” (Correspondent) Small Planes 2006 – George Foster Peabody, Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University and News and Documentary Emmy Awards (Anchor/Correspondent) CNN Coverage of Hurricane Katrina and Aftermath CNN