Factual error: Paris control refuses to allow the Concorde to land at Paris, and orders the flight to return to the US. It is highly unlikely that the Concorde can carry enough fuel to make two trips across the Atlantic without refueling. Very few aircraft have the fuel capacity to go to the destination and return. It usually costs too much to carry excess fuel on a flight.
Factual error: Although the exterior shots are obviously a Concorde aircraft, the interior is a gross misrepresentation of the actual inside of the real aeroplane. To start with the windows are way too large as anyone who has been on or near a Concorde would testify. Also there is not a ‘galley corner' like on most aircraft so people would not be walking round it as depicted in the film. The cabin is quite slim and narrow and is through and through as it is all one class. The seats are far plusher than depicted too. The cockpit is obviously not Concorde and appears to be a standard aeroplane mock up, nothing like the real thing. There does not appear to be any cross tapes on the cabin door that would deploy the emergency chutes when the door is opened, so conveniently do not need to be removed for the plot ploy of opening the door in flight (a highly unlikely and dangerous manoeuvre in reality). Even at 5000 feet, opening the door would cause depressurization and cause a freezing haze and oxygen masks deployment. Jumping from this plane is a plot problem. 1. If you used a front position door, you would be sucked into the wing and engines, 2. If you used a middle door you would just be jumping onto the wing and would probably still perish fairly quickly. 3. A rear door would be in the narrowest part of the plane and be totally inadequate to display the action that takes place several times around this door. There are so many other factual errors in this movie, they are too numerous to list. The fact that a huge hole is blown in the aircraft at one point with no discernible effect on its control, being just one of them. The fact that it then lands perfectly, despite it being out of fuel, severely damaged, and piloted by someone who has never even sat in a cockpit of any description before, well if this film is about suspending all belief in any reality whatsoever, then it succeeds.
Factual error: No way five people could stand in a Concorde cockpit. They were so cramped the pilots had to slide into their seats over the controls.
Other mistake: The crew are commencing pre-flight checks, and the aircraft shown still has the blanking plates in the engine intakes.
Factual error: The Concorde is seen in several shots supposedly circling over Paris, but all the shots show snow capped mountains beneath. This appears to be The Alps or The Pyrenees, neither of which would be on a Parisian holding pattern. There are no mountains around Paris. Also, it is quite unlikely that permission would be given to shoot down a multi-million dollar plane over a hugely populated area like Paris as the results could be catastrophic. I suppose that is why all the views of the mountains were so vital to the plot.
