Continuity mistake: As the crippled airliner nears the coast, John Wayne slips his life jacket over his head, then provides one for another crew member. He then turns toward the cockpit, and his life jacket has magically threaded itself around his waist, and tied itself in place.
The High and the Mighty (1954)
1 continuity mistake
Directed by: William A. Wellman
Starring: John Wayne, Robert Stack, Claire Trevor, Laraine Day
Factual error: After the plane takes off from Hawaii, bound for San Francisco, there's a long shot of it flying among the clouds, with the left side well lit by the Sun. If the plane is flying east, in the northern hemisphere, then the Sun would be in the southern sky, illuminating the plane's other side.
Trivia: When Dr. Flaherty is painting on the beach, his tranquillity is broken by the nearby launch of a military weapon test. The film seen of the launch is stock footage of a U.S. built, back-engineered copy of the V-1 buzzbomb, one of the cutting edge weapons used by the Nazis during World War 2.