Continuity: When Grant goes down to the main cabin and is looking around for the sleeper, the fringe of his hair goes from up and pushed back to all hanging down without him touching it.

Revealing: When the Oceanic 747 attempts to make its first landing, you can tell that the 'hole' on the side of the aircraft is simply painted on.

Continuity: Near the end of the movie, when Grant takes control of the airplane and lands on his second try, you can see the inner engine on the left wing (right to us) fall off and catch fire after impacting with the smaller parked planes. In the next shot, which happens quickly, you can see the engine is still in place and not damaged at all. In the next shot, it's gone again and the wing is on fire where the engine was.

Factual error: When the bullet is fired through the aircraft window there would be no possible way that Grant would be able to hold on for that whole time as the plane is travelling up to 600mph and also his temperature will lower immediately, which would cause weakness.

Deliberate "mistake": In the cargo hold of any jetliner, the engine noise would be quite loud, yet the commando team is able to converse in normal tones of voice and there is no engine noise at all. In fact, there is virtually no engine noise at all on any inside part of the jet.

Revealing: When Oceanic Flight 343 finally touches down at the smaller airfield and Grant is slowing it down you can see him pull the throttles to idle then pull the reverse levers back. On a real 747 this would deploy the reverse "cans" which basically means the back part of the engine covers move towards the back of the engine to direct a good proportion of the thrust forward to slow the aircraft. During the next few shots we go from inside the cockpit with Grant wrestling with the controls, to outside the aircraft, where we see the engines go past the camera several times, wrecking the strips lights and light planes. In all of these shots the "cans" are still in the non-reverse position.

Continuity: John Leguizamo's character is protected by his bullet-proof vest when David Suchet shoots him. Despite this the vest would still be damaged, yet when Leguizamo is seen lying face down the back of his vest is unmarked.

Revealing: Because the hijacked plane is carrying deadly chemicals, the military officers at the Pentagon plan to takeoff urgently within 1 hour. Yet when they reach the airfield you can see palm trees and mountains in the background. If the meeting was in Washington DC, they'd need to takeoff from a nearby airfield. 1 hour is not enough time to get from Washington DC to any airfield with palm trees and mountains. This scene was probably filmed in California.

Factual error: Computerized maps throughout the movie show the plane heading due west past Spain and Portugal from Athens to Washington, D.C. Aircraft follow great circle route; although Athens and DC are similar in latitude, the shortest flight path is north over Scandinavia. No commercial air route between Athens and the East Coast fly over Spain.

Continuity: In the scene where the girl goes down in the plane's elevator, you can clearly see the phone to her left (our right) has no light. In the latter parts of the movie the phone becomes a very significant tool and now has a light on it. (Time)

Factual error: When John Leguizamo is surveying the cabin for terrorists and reporting back to Kurt Russell, he says the terrorists are carrying 9mm Skorpions. The Skorpion IS produced in 9mm Makarov and .380 Auto versions, but those weapons have straight magazines, not curved ones. The terrorists' Skorpions have curved magazines, which denotes the weapon being chambered for 7.65 Browning.

Continuity: In the scene when you see Rat pull himself vigorously along the wire upside down you see that there is no equipment on his head whatsoever although in the very next shot when he lets himself down from the wire you see that he has his infrared goggles attached to his forehead. (Time)

Continuity: The second time David Grant (Kurt Russell) is calling the stewardess on the phone he keeps pressing the button. The movie makes it seem like every time he presses the button, the light blinks. You can clearly see him stop pressing the button but the light still blinks.