Flight

Factual error: Whenever the fire extinguisher is activated for a jet engine, that engine becomes inoperable. In the movie, the co-pilot first activates the extinguisher for the left engine, and 30 seconds later, for the right engine. At that point, both engines should be shut down. However, the engines are still operating (and revving up) and Whitaker even asks Margaret to apply full power, which is also audible. (00:23:00)

NoDouty

Factual error: When flight 227 departs Orlando, the thrust increases for 3 minutes. It should have increased for 30 seconds.

AAL117

Factual error: During the emergency, Whip instructs Ken to dump fuel, and fuel is seen spraying out of the nozzle on the wing. MD-80 family aircraft are not equipped with fuel dump capabilities.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: The aircraft is a fictional Jackson Ridgefield JR-88 according to a slide shown during the NTSB hearing scene. This can also explain why it has winglets, another feature McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series aircraft do not have.

AAL117

Factual error: During the pre-flight scene, in the exterior shot panning from the control tower down to the aircraft parked at the gate, the sign on the jetway indicates gate A27, when there is in fact no such gate at Orlando International Airport.

Factual error: When Denzel checks his iphone, the lock screen shows a date of October 20 and the time is 1:17. After unlocking the screen, the calendar icon on the phone shows the 8th as the date, and the time as 8:52. The battery remaining also changes.

Factual error: When the plane's altitude decreases from 28,000 to 27,000 ft on the altimeter, the digits to the right of the 8/7 do not change.

AAL117

Factual error: When flight 227 departs Orlando, the thrust increases for 3 minutes. It should have increased for 30 seconds.

AAL117

More mistakes in Flight

Whip: I drank the night before the flight.

More quotes from Flight

Trivia: Nicole's car bears Georgia license plate CHN 320. This is the same plate number used on the General Lee in "the Dukes of Hazzard".

More trivia for Flight

Question: Can inverting a plane completely upside down and then turning it 180 degrees truly keep it from going down in a sharp nosedive and "gliding" to safety? Seems rather far-fetched but made for a very interesting exciting movie focal point.

Tricia Webster

Chosen answer: Popular mechanics wrote an article covering this. In short, inverting a passenger jet is certainly doable, but the specific chain of events seen in the film are more of a stretch. Possible, but...challenging, to say the least!

Jon Sandys

More questions & answers from Flight

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.