Revealing mistake: In the beginning of the movie, at the scene in the morgue, dead David's eyelids very slightly shake right before his casket is closed. (00:04:20)
Continuity mistake: The outline of the heart the little girl drew on the window change from when she drew it to when Jodi Foster breathes on it. This has nothing to do with the inside/outside shot of the heart. (00:14:55 - 00:50:20)
Other mistake: At the very end, Jodie Foster's daughter is drugged and not given any medical attention until hours later when she wakes up. Giving medical attention to a person, especially a child, that is the victim of a crime is easily one of the first things that law enforcement would do. Obviously done to make the final scene more dramatic. (01:28:50 - 01:31:30)
Plot hole: The whole concept of a kidnapper 'pretending' his victim didn't get on the plane in the first place is utterly laughable. Even if nobody saw her in her seat, why didn't they see her walking down the aisle to her seat, or waiting to board the plane, or in the boarding tunnel itself? Why isn't she listed on the passenger manifest, or on her mother's travel documents or airline ticket? And there would have been security cameras all over the airport.
Plot hole: Gene's plot has far too many holes for it to have had any chance of working in real life. He somehow must get himself assigned to that particular flight (OK, maybe as a flight marshal he could persuade his superiors to assign him to it) - but also hope that the air stewardess Stephanie is also assigned to that flight - something he has no control over. He then needs to push Jodie Foster's husband off a building, hope the corpse is taken to the only morgue in the city with a crooked morgue director, hope the coffin is assigned to the flight he is on. On top of that, he needs to get explosives into a coffin, the combination of which he actually says he doesn't know. He also needs to hope no-one notices the child, the child doesn't make a noise while boarding, there are lots of spare seats on this inaugural flight, and that mother and daughter move to them.
Factual error: Jodie Foster states that as a propulsion engineer, she knows the internal structure of the plane by heart and has worked extensively on it. The problem with that is that propulsion engineers work on the jet engines - which are all on the outside of the plane, on the wings. Sure, a propulsion engineer might have some basic knowledge of the plane's interior design and engineering, but the in-depth knowledge she claims comes from her job simply isn't right - that's the job of avionics engineers.
Factual error: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are shown checking baggage in the final scenes at the same time that FBI agents are making arrests. The flight landed in Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. According to the Criminal Code of Canada, any crime committed during an international flight that ends on Canadian soil is deemed to have been committed in Canada. That being the case, the RCMP as the national police force has full jurisdiction. There is no way the FBI would be involved at that point.
Plot hole: The premise of Carson framing Kyle is utterly ridiculous. Not only the fact that the authorities would never accept a ransom demand without speaking to a supposed hijacker, but Carson has absolutely no evidence to give that Kyle is a hijacker, and yet the FBI somehow all know who she and treat her as a hijacker just from her looking at them from the plane door. The movie seems to act as if an Air Marshal's word alone is enough to convince the authorities that a crime or hijacking is happening aboard.
Plot hole: Bomb squad vehicles are present at the airport when the plane lands. There is no bomb disposal unit in Goose. If one is needed it has to come from two provinces away - travel time by vehicle, in March, going flat out: minimum 20 hours + a 2.5 hr ferry trip. Not to mention that the markings on said vehicles are American: transportation of those vehicles from the US wouldn't have been any easier than from Canada, on the contrary, so again, they wouldn't have had the time to bring them over.
Other mistake: When either Kyle or Carson run down the staircase the rails move significantly. On a real plane this would not have passed the pre-flight safety checks and the plane would have been grounded. Nothing in the film suggests the rails would have loosened.
Other mistake: Carson's face would have been a whole lot more disfigured had he actually been hit that hard with a fire extinguisher.
Factual error: At the end of the movie, when they land in Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador, the firetrucks that rush to the scene are the wrong color. The firefighters at the Goose Bay airport drive yellow fire trucks, not red ones.
Factual error: At the end of the movie when Kyle and her daughter are being driven away we see a shot of the licence plate. Although it is marked "Newfoundland and Labrador" the numbers are before the letters, the reverse of what it is in the province.
Continuity mistake: When Stephanie is about to check avionics, Fiona holds the flashlight by the lamp end (bulb) as Stephanie takes the flashlight. However, in the next shot, Fiona still holds the flashlight, but she now holds the other end as Stephanie takes the flashlight from her.
Continuity mistake: In the shot when Carson put the bomb in Avionics to activate it, he puts down two parts. The part to the right (from Julia's perspective) is a little inclined. But when Kyle is in Avionics looking for Julia, that part of the bomb is not inclined.
Continuity mistake: Near the end when the Air Marshall is getting off the plane to "get the two agents" there is a shot of him from behind walking off the plane with snow covering most of the ground, but when the shot cuts to a wide shot from the side of him all the snow is gone.
Character mistake: When the plane is speeding down the runway at the beginning, a female flight attendant is seen walking, and Kyle is seen buckling her seat belt. Everyone would have been sitting down and buckled in at this point.
Factual error: Carson says that the explosives were put inside the casket because caskets aren't X-rayed. Even though often times cargo such as the casket are sent by "known shippers", and known shippers check screen the casket, they are still X-rayed by airport security. There are no exceptions to X-raying cargo, even if it was already deemed secure.
Factual error: When Jodie triggers the explosives and the plane collapses, the windshield is shown shattering and exploding. That is multilayer safety glass, it would not shatter in that manner.
Character mistake: An air marshal would not give such leeway to someone detained for such disruption. The person would be detained and immediately routed to the nearest airport for investigation or arrest.
Chosen answer: He didn't know for sure, but he had a hunch. As far as he could tell she would arrive early to register the body for the U.S. and they would let her board the plane first (as a common courtesy, since her husband died) Plus, he knew that she had knowledge of planes and that it was her interest to see a new model of an aircraft that she helped build before it was to take off.
Jason Riley