Factual error: Before the damaged plane is dismantled, in some shots the three propeller blades of the port side engine are a mixture of clockwise and anticlockwise type. (The twist along the length of the blade goes the opposite direction depending on the type).
The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
1 factual error
Directed by: Robert Aldrich
Starring: Ernest Borgnine, Hardy Krüger, James Stewart, Peter Finch, Richard Attenborough
Continuity mistake: In the scene near the end when the men are done dragging the plane, one of the men unhooks the dragging strap under the left wing. In the next shot, it shows the pilot standing on top of the wing with the strap still attached. When the men climb the ladder to board the plane, the strap is gone. (02:14:40 - 02:15:15)
Standish: Insurance companies move in mysterious ways. Much like God... only far less generous.
Trivia: The plane which is shown flying at the end of the movie was actually built and flown for the movie. The stunt pilot Paul Mantz was killed while flying it for the movie, which is why the plane is not shown landing in the movie's final scene.
Question: Before I claim this as a continuity or factual mistake - a question: When the Arab raiding party shows up over the dune, they camp by a collection of scrub that was not all dead, some was green. There were also a number of plants in that low-lying area around the camp. Wouldn't the survivors had a better chance of surviving more days by digging for underground water in that area? Perhaps deep, but there. If they took 12 days to build the plane, it seems 2 days digging for water would have given them more time.
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Answer: In the desert, the only place you can find water as at an oasis or maybe digging in a dry river bed. Those bushes would be extremely salty, and any meaningful water would be far too deep under the sand.
stiiggy