Airport

Airport (1970)

6 corrected entries

(7 votes)

Corrected entry: Early in the flight, one of the pilots explains to a flight attendant that regulations require that if either of the pilots leaves the cockpit, the remaining pilot must put on his oxygen mask until the other pilot returns (which the remaining pilot is shown doing). However when the bomb goes off with one of the pilots in the rear of the plane, they immediately switch to the cockpit and show the remaining pilot quickly putting on his oxygen mask (which he was not wearing) as he puts out the "Mayday" call.

Correction: Captain Harris (the pilot flying) has his oxygen mask on. It's Cy Jordan, the flight engineer, who you see putting his mask on after the explosion.

Corrected entry: When the bombed plane lands, the pilot pulls the throttle all the way back and is seen turning something off, but a few seconds later, his hand is again on the throttle, which is positioned halfway, as it used to be.

kh1616

Correction: The captain is engaging reverse thrust. The throttle levers have two handles set at about 90° to each other. When the throttles are at idle, the reversing levers could easily be mistaken for the throttles at half thrust. This lever is then unlocked and pulled backwards to engage the reversers.

Corrected entry: Near the end of the movie when they are landing, Dean Martin is asked to help with the right rudder to turn the plane as it nears the end of the runway. In the Boeing 707 to turn the plane on the ground you use what is called a "tiller" that is left of the pilot. In the 707 the rudder pedals are not even connected to the nose wheel.

Scooter

Correction: The plane has just landed significantly overweight and at a faster than usual speed. Captains Harris and Demerest are concerned about running right off the end of the runway. It's true that the tiller does the nosewheel steering, but the rudder will still be able to influence the plane's direction - they're using every available means to keep the plane on paved surfaces.

Corrected entry: Dean Martin requests a "PAR" approach to Lincoln. The controller confirms the requested "Precision Radar Approach" whose acronym is "PRA" not "PAR."

Correction: While the acronym is PAR since the term is technically "Precision Approach Radar", the term "precision radar approach" is commonly used, even in FAA documents I found in a Google search to describe the same thing, so having the controller use that term would be appropriate and understood by all the parties. Basically, one is the system (PAR), and one is the action (radar approach).

jimba

Corrected entry: When the bomber's wife calls in to the airline reservations office to warn the airline, the person taking the call uses a telephone handset, while the reservation agents sitting behind her are all using headsets.

Correction: How is this a film mistake? Some people don't use the headsets supplied with their telephone, some do.

Corrected entry: When Capt. Demerst tells Mel Bakerfield in the beginning of the movie that "when I'm setting down over 200 thousand pounds of 707 I want something under my wheels that's plently long & mighty dry", referring to the runway conditions, there's one problem. He's taking off, not landing. Wouldn't you assume that "setting down" would refer to landing?

Correction: It is mentioned that Capt. Demerest represents a group of airline pilots. His comment is likely made on behalf of pilots who will be landing at the airport under current conditions.

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.

More mistakes in Airport

Tanya Livingston: There's bound to be a passenger with a fifty-dollar wrenched back. I'd better get out there with some release forms and plenty of sympathy and understanding.

More quotes from Airport
More trivia for Airport

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?

kh1616

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.

Sierra1

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.

More questions & answers from Airport

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