Former Meta COO Sheryl Sandberg fabricated a claim that she was planning to take an Asiana Airlines flight that ended up crash-landing in San Francisco more than a decade ago, killing 3 and injuring nearly 200, according to one of her ex-subordinates.
Sarah Wynn-Williams, who worked under Sandberg for six years as director of public policy when the company was known as Facebook, alleged in her new memoir that CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s former No. 2 “lie[d] about narrowly missing” Asiana Airlines Flight 214.
“People don’t lie about narrowly missing plane crashes, do they?” Wynn-Williams wrote in her memoir titled “Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism.”
“Why would she? It’s not like she needs attention.”
Wynn-Williams wrote: “I never see Sheryl the same way after that.”
The San Francisco-bound flight took off from Incheon International Airport near Seoul, South Korea, on July 6, 2013 with 307 people on board.
The plane crash-landed at San Francisco International Airport after the pilots mismanaged the aircraft’s approach. The Boeing 777-200ER was flying too low and too slow as it attempted to land.
Emergency responders arrived quickly, and most passengers were able to evacuate before the fire spread.
However, three people died, including one who was run over by a rescue vehicle in the aftermath. A total of 187 passengers were injured, with many suffering spinal and head injuries.
In a Facebook post published shortly afterward that day, Sandberg claimed that she, along with her family and several Facebook colleagues, had initially planned to take the flight.
“We switched to United so we could use miles for my family’s tickets,” she wrote.
“Our flight was scheduled to come in at the same time, but we were early and landed about 20 minutes before the crash.”
Sandberg posted multiple Facebook updates to reassure her followers that she and her traveling companions were unharmed. She also shared that David Eun, a friend and executive at Samsung Electronics, had been on the Asiana flight but was safe.
“Serious moment to give thanks,” she wrote.
Her post quickly gained traction, surpassing 3,000 likes within the first hour.
But Wynn-Williams, author of the recently released book “Careless People: A Cautionary Tale of Power, Greed, and Lost Idealism,” said that Sandberg’s post was not true.
In her memoir, she wrote: “I flip through the news and see reports that Sheryl, [Facebook’s then-director of global communications] Debbie [Frost], and others on our team were supposed to be on that flight.”
According to Wynn-Williams, Facebook staffers learned of this through Sandberg’s post. She then called Frost.
In the book, Frost is quoted as saying that Sandberg’s post was “totally weird” because “Sheryl always flies United” and “we never considered Asiana.”
“I don’t know why she posted it,” Frost is quoted as telling Wynn-Williams. “I don’t know why she tagged all of us [in the Facebook post].”
Frost referred The Post to her Threads social media account where she wrote: “While I appreciate everyone’s perspective is different, a bunch of the stories are exaggerated or just didn’t happen.”
A spokesperson for Meta and Sandberg declined to comment.
Wynn-Williams’ book contains other salacious claims. According to the former Meta employee, Sandberg once had a personal assistant spend $13,000 on lingerie for her and her boss while on a trip to Europe.
During a private jet flight, a pajama-clad Sandberg invited Wynn-Williams to “come to bed” — an offer that the subordinate declined, according to the book.
Wynn-Williams also wrote that she witnessed Sandberg and her assistant, Sadie, sleeping in each other’s laps and stroking each other’s hair on road trips.
The author also accused another Meta executive, Joel Kaplan, of sexually harassing her. The company said it launched an extensive internal investigation which cleared Kaplan.
