Plot hole: All pilots are carefully trained and have the technology to secretly transmit a code that tells air traffic control there is a hijacking in progress, without having to say a word. They also have a hijack code, something that sounds completely innocuous to you or me, but would be instantly recognisable to the airport authorities.
Con Air (1997)
Plot summary
Directed by: Simon West
Starring: Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, John Malkovich, Ving Rhames, Danny Trejo, Colm Meaney, Monica Potter, Mykelti Williamson, Nick Chinlund
Cameron Poe has served seven years for the self-defense murder of drunken patron at a bar. On the day of his release, he catches the flight from hell, literally. On a flight with convicts that are being transported to a maximum security prison, Poe soon learns something's wrong, when there's a rebellion aboard his flight. With the convicts controlling the plane, Poe must find a way to save Guard Bishop, Baby-O, and himself, whilst trying to find a way home to his wife and daughter.
More mistakes in Con Air
[Poe is looking out of the back of the plane at the DEA agent's car tethered to it, flapping about.]
Cameron Poe: On any other day, that might seem strange.
Trivia: Dave Chappelle ad-libbed most of his lines.
Question: What is the actual likelihood that a decorated serviceman, with no prior criminal record (we know this because if Poe had any priors he wouldn't have been in the Army) would actually get prison time for killing two men who attacked himself and his girlfriend? Seeing as there were witnesses (said girlfriend and bartender) I find it hard to believe he would have gotten more than an extended period of probation. A prison term, even a year or two, seems severely harsh considering the circumstances.
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Chosen answer: Zero. As you said, he was attacked and there are witnesses that he tried to avoid the fight and the killings were in self-defense. It is an extremely weak plot hammer to get Poe onto a plane full of criminals. It's foolish as well. The writers could have had Poe framed for a crime then exonerated and put in the same situation much more believably.
Grumpy Scot
It's in Alabama. People are put in prison here for much less.
First, Poe is a federal prisoner, not subject to State laws or legal procedures. Secondly, he is not in Alabama. During a conversation with Billy Bedlam we hear that he is incarcerated in the "Q" - prison slang for San Quentin in California. It makes you wonder why a Federal prisoner is in a State prison, but that's another type of mistake.
Would it really be considered self-defense, though? After he beat the guys to the ground he could have just stopped and walked away, but he didn't. He kept beating them until they died.
He is defending his wife against two armed assailants, and use of lethal force is allowable. No DA in the United States would even think about pressing charges, knowing full well a grand jury would throw them out in a second.