Airport

Factual error: When Joe Patroni is attempting to move the stuck 707, Bakersfeld is standing beside his car watching, very close to the plane. Without some form of hearing protection, he would have been very quickly deafened by the noise - a 707 at takeoff thrust is incredibly loud. I once watched a 707 take off from about a half mile away and forgot to cover my ears - it was so loud it actually hurt.

Factual error: The decompression would have caused water vapor in the air to cool and condense into fog.

hifijohn

Factual error: In the scene where Joe Patroni is attempting to move the stuck 707, he pushes the throttles forward, problem is the throttles he is using are for a twin engine plane. The 707 has 4 throttle levers.

Factual error: The letter that Mrs Guerrero receives with the refund from the travel agent has the wrong zip code on for Chicago.

hifijohn

Factual error: Trans Global is given frequency 117.5 to contact Cleveland Center and 117.1 to contact Chicago Center. Both of those frequencies are VOR navigation frequencies. The VOR frequencies range from 108.0-117.95.

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Mistakes

Other mistake: When the stricken airliner is on final approach for landing, both pilots stare intently out the windscreen, never so much as glancing down at the flight instruments. In an instrument landing the pilot must look continuously at the instruments until the copilot reports that the runway is in sight, as that is the only way he can follow the controller's instructions.

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Quotes

Ada Quonsett: When you get to be older, there isn't a lot left to be frightened of.

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Trivia

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Questions

Question: First there's a scene showing the "Golden Argosy" flight crew taking a mini-bus out to the plane (which, I assume, is already at the gate). The next scene shows Vernin Demerest and Gwen Meighen alone on the plane talking about her being pregnant, etc. Later in that same scene we see the rest of the crew getting onto the plane while Demerest and Meighen are all-of-a-sudden pretending there's a problem with a light. My question is this: If they all went out to the plane together on the bus where were the rest of the crew while Demerest and Meighen were talking on the plane? Wouldn't the whole crew have arrived together and got onto the plane together?

Answer: You are right. I have seen the film 100 times and never questioned that. There is no reason for only some of the crew to be on the plane, but it was needed for the scene to work.

Answer: For that matter, why would the crew take a bus to a plane that's already at the gate? Wouldn't they just board via the jetbridge?

Now, yes, they go through security with the passengers. Prior to 2001, crew on my airline often took a private bus from the sign-on building to the aircraft.

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