Corrected entry: In the scene where John McClane fights the terrorist near the annex, you can see a terrorist on scaffolding reach over the deck to shoot John, yet he still manages to make holes in what he was reaching over.
Corrected entry: When the major is fighting John on the plane wing there is a white spiral in the middle of the engine, but when the Major falls into the engine there is no spiral.
Correction: Yes, there is. The turbine blades are now spinning, and the turbine boss or 'hub' is, too, which blurs the painted pattern so that it looks like a solid colour.
Corrected entry: McClane's fireman's jacket gets progressively bloodier throughout the film, but around the time when he is fighting the terrorists on the plane's wing, it is miraculously clean again.
Correction: It is clean because he is not wearing it, he took it off to jam the wing ailerons to stop the plane taking off, later Col. Stuart retrieves it and throws it away.
Corrected entry: When the plane explodes at the end of the film all the planes circling can now tell where the ground is and start landing. Why did they not do this earlier when the Windsor (British) plane crashed?
Correction: They couldn't tell where the runway started. The bad guy's plane left a long trail of burning fuel.
Corrected entry: Now, I've never been to IAD (Dulles) or LAX but I've been in several airports and have never, ever seen a control tower in such close proximity to the terminal area that one can take an elevator to, let alone be so unsecure that civilians and reporters and camera crews can go into unmolested.
Correction: Go to the Dulles Airport official website. You'll see that the control tower is in the main terminal building, rising 193 feet above it. It is easily accessible with public restrooms right at its base! Dulles was designed in the late 1950s and opened in 1962. At the time, airports were designed for beauty, not security. Secure, stand alone towers were not the norm. Even in 1990 when this film was made, security was not what it is (or should be) now.
Corrected entry: The plane crashes into the runway because they think they are higher than they really are, but the runway lights are never turned on. I'm no pilot, but I don't think a pilot would try to land a plane on an unlit runway.
Correction: A pilot got in touch with me about this: If necessary we will land a plane without runway lights - there is this thing called an ILS (instrument landing system) which they used to land the plane. If not tampered with you would be able to land the plane safely. On the other hand with that much snow on the runway, no plane would be able to land, not enough space to stop the planes. Another thing there is is a safe altitude and approach slope warning that would have went off no matter what the ILS was telling them.
They think they can't see the lights due to the storm, and are flying through clouds. I've seen and been on planes that have taken off and/or landed in heavy fog. The pilots are assuming the lights are on, and they just can't see them yet.
I agree with everything said here, and we can also add that the pilot was being guided by Colonel Stewart, who he thought was air traffic control.
Corrected entry: Forget BWI, why couldn't they just light up the runway with gasoline in the beginning?
Correction: If the terrorists had seen them do it, they might have started shooting people - someone pointed out that there were no terrorists in the airport, they were all in the church. However, another relevant point is that the police didn't know there were no terrorists in the airport.
Corrected entry: Bruce Willis, on the wing of the terrorists' getaway plane, unscrews the gas cap. The gas cap cannot be unscrewed on a plane unless a lever is pulled in the cockpit.
Correction: Further to this comment: 1. There is no fuel cap on a B747 engine pylon.
2. Fuel used is JET A-1 (kerosene) which is not readily flammable.
3. As it is not so easily lighted, there is no way it could have burned on the ground (covered with snow!!) and eventually caused the aircraft to explode.
There is no lever in the cockpit to open a fuel cap. The only equipment in the cockpit is for a fuel dump from the wing tips in case of an emergency.
Corrected entry: Bruce is sitting in what looks like a C-130 while terrorists throw grenades in it through the window. Never mind the grenades going off too late, because they wouldn't all have made it through the small window anyway. In fact some of those grenades would've bounced back killing the terrorists also, which would've made for a surprising end to this movie. (01:17:45)
Correction: It is improbable that the terrorists could toss all the grenades in a small window, but it isn't factually impossible.
Corrected entry: When McClane's wife is thinking about using the phone to call, there is a shot of the phone. Behind the phone, you can see a circular staircase. The aircraft she is on, an L1011 TriStar, has only one passenger deck. (01:23:20)
Correction: The L-1011 was originally designed with a lower deck, configures either as a passenger lounge/bar or as a galley; just not all airlines bought the option.
Corrected entry: Dick locks the door using the slide lock inside, so Holly couldn't have got in to electrocute him.
Correction: To open the door to the lavatory, all you have to do is flip the metal hinge on the outside.
Corrected entry: At the end of the film when John and Holly get driven away on the back of what resembles a golf cart, the long shot of them clearly shows two dummies that nearly fall off when the cart sets off. (01:51:35)
Correction: They are real, they just move due to the cart accelerating as any normal person in the back of one would, if it took off too fast. I saw no evidence of them being dummies.
Corrected entry: The last scene shows the bad guys in their plane ready to take off - driving down the runway. Then Bruce gets from the helicopter to the plane's wing, fights with each bad guy, falls off, and the plane begins to take off - again. At no time did the plane turn to circle to another runway. It seems this runway was about 2 to 3 times as long as it should have been.
Correction: Have a closer look. As the 747 begins its takeoff run, it can be seen just completing a right-hand turn onto the runway.
Corrected entry: Early in the film, McClane describes Cochrane's pistol to Lorenzo as a "Glock 7" which is made in Germany. While the model could easily be made up for the movie (there's no real Glock 7, and even the mostly non-metal models are easily detected), Glocks are Austrian, not German.
Correction: McClane is a detective in the LAPD, he is not an international arms dealer or sales rep from Glock. He doesn't know the country of origin of every type of weapon on the planet. He may not even distinguish Austria from Germany.
Corrected entry: When Willis is in the pilot's seat of Esperanza's plane, he ejects when grenades are thrown in by the terrorists. First of all, those aircraft are sealed tight and have no canopy or hatches to blow off for an ejection. In that case, ejection seats would be useless. Also in that scene, multiple grenades are thrown in the cockpit, yet it takes 23 seconds before any of them blow. The type of grenades they were using, which were US issue, have a fuse no longer than 7-8 seconds upon release.
Correction: Some C-123 Sherpa (Esperanza's plane type) transport aircraft are equipped with ejection seats. The V-22 Osprey's model is so equipped for example.
And the grenade explosion time?
That's why it's suggested people only put in 1 mistake per entry and not combining mistakes, since part would be wrong. It's not up to the corrector to correct every part of the mistake entry, just the part that's wrong. If you think the grenade part is a valid mistake, make an entry.
Esperanza's plane is NOT a C123 Sherpa, which is a twin turboprop cargo aircraft with a square profile fuselage, fixed undercarriage and a twin vertical tail. It looks nothing like the weird (and completely fictional) aircraft in this film.
Corrected entry: If the terrorists had sailed off in the 747 in the end, what then? They had no way of protecting themselves from fighter planes, which would certainly have been on their tails. So what could their next move have been?
Correction: This isn't a plot hole. The characters may have had a plan, but they just didn't get that far.
Corrected entry: Col. Stewart asks if the 747 is ready and says he wants ground personnel to inspect the plane. Maj. Grant intercedes and tells Stewart to check out his own plane so not to have potential hostages (which, of course was a ploy). When the hanger door is opened, you see ground personnel running back and forth between the door. They are noticeable by their orange vests. (01:33:45 - 01:35:40)
Correction: Stewart asked for a ground crew, Grant told him to check out his own plane. No decision on whether Dulles would provide a ground crew or not was decided on screen.
Correction: The bullets are tearing through a lower level of the scaffolding.