Trivia: When being played on basic cable or regular TV, John McClane's catchphrase "Yippee ki yay, mother fucker!" is sometimes oddly redubbed as "Yippee ki yay, Mr. Falcon!" Falcon is the call sign for General Esperanza's original flight, which half explains the odd wording.
Trivia: The film is based on a book called "58 Minutes" by Walter Wager. In the book, it is the hero's young daughter, not his wife, that is on one of the planes.
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.
Trivia: In March 1993, the Boeing 747-100 cargo aeroplane featured in this film (registration N473EV) was involved in an incident at Anchorage International Airport, Alaska, USA. Shortly after take-off the plane experienced troubles due to severe weather and the number two engine separated from the plane. Strangely enough, the number two engine is what "ingested" Major Grant after the encounter with McClane on the wing. The plane managed to land safely after this incident with no injuries.
Trivia: Renny Harlin, the film's director, is from Finland and puts something Finnish in each film he directs. At the end of Die Hard 2 Jean Sibelius' Finlandia plays.
Trivia: The majority of the airport shots in this film were not filmed at Dulles, it is Stapleton Airport in Denver.
Trivia: When the older lady is showing off her taser in the beginning of the film she is holding a magazine. On the back of the magazine is an advertisement for Lethal Weapon. Joel Silver, who produced Lethal Weapon, also produced this film. (00:05:36)
Trivia: The fictional country that General Esperanza is from is Val Verde, which was the same country where Arius had been a dictator in the 1985 film, Commando, also produced by Joel Silver. (00:02:30)
Answer: Because the police were moments away from arriving at the scene. They needed as much time to get away without being tracked. Every moment counts. And a target rocking about a few hundred feet in the air doesn't seem to be such an "easy target".
XIII