Factual error: In circling over Washington Dulles, a plane would fly over several airports that they could land at with perfect communication, including Richmond, Baltimore, Andrews AFB, etc. Also, there is no communication from the airport to the plane but the plane would be in range of no fewer than 15 transmitting stations that could have relayed messages.

Die Hard 2 (1990)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: Renny Harlin
Starring: Bruce Willis, William Sadler, Bonnie Bedelia, John Amos
The Army dudes are really in cahoots with the bad guys. McClane ignites a trail of fuel leaking from the plane. The flames follow the plane and it explodes.
DaveJB
John McClane: Hey Carmine, let me ask you a question. When you go through the airport metal detector, what sets it off first? The lead in your ass or the shit in your brains?
Trivia: Producers of the movie were concerned that actual terrorists could use the information in the film to disrupt airport/airplane communications in real life. Most of the "sensitive" information in the film is not only wrong, it is purposely misleading to prevent terrorists from attempting what we see in the movie.
Question: How could McClane tell that the ammo in the blue labeled magazine were blanks?
Answer: Just before the attack on the church, Grant and his team switch the red taped clips from their weapons with blue taped clips. The blue clips carried blanks and the red clips carried real ammo. After firing on a guy but not hitting him, McClane checked the clip and realised that the gun he used had blanks and that Grant and his team were involved with freeing Esperanza.
Quite apart from the fact that anyone who has spent his whole professional life with guns would know instantly that he had just shot off a magazine of blanks – no recoil.
Answer: Additionally, in the military, blue tape or blue in general is associated with non-lethal. Red tape is for danger, i.e., magazines with live ammo. A blue grenade is inert and meant for training.
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Answer: If you listen, he says something to the effect of "I know I had that guy in my sights", meaning he is amazed he missed. So he checks the bullets in the magazine to see if that's the problems. Blanks are simply shells with no bullet that are crimped shut to hold the powder in. The difference between blanks and live rounds is very obvious even at a glance.
Grumpy Scot