Directed by: Henry Hathaway, George Seaton
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, George Kennedy, Jacqueline Bisset, Jean Seberg
Stupidity: If Guerrero had limited money and wanted to be sure to blow up the plane over water, he certainly could have bought a ticket to a much cheaper destination than Rome, such as a Caribbean island.
Suggested correction: "The North Atlantic leaves no traces." He wanted to down the plane where recovery and investigation would have been practically impossible.
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.
Ada Quonsett: My late husband taught me to be thorough. He was a teacher of geometry. He always said: "You must consider every angle."
Tanya Livingston: My late husband was a lawyer, and he always said: "Watch out for sweet-looking innocent, little old ladies." I'm beginning to understand what he meant.
Question: Near the end of the film, the plane stuck on the ground is pressurised before it can move out of the way. Why is it pressurised if it's on the ground and not in the air?
Chosen answer: Patroni isn't referring to the cabin pressure, he says to "pressurize the manifold" - part of the engine start procedure of a Boeing 707, which I believe involves a ground crew pumping gas (nitrogen?) from a cart into the intake manifold.
Pressurize - as in the manifold, to turn on bleed air from the APU - on board Auxiliary Power Unit - a small jet engine that provides electrical and pneumatic air to operate aircraft systems including starting engines.