Corrected entry: Near the end of the movie, when the Apollo 13 is about to return to Earth, a lady goes to collect the Lovells' eldest daughter from her bedroom to join the rest of her waiting family by the television. She appears to calls her Mary, the actresses real name, not Barbara the name of the daughter in real life.
David George
15th Oct 2019
Apollo 13 (1995)
6th May 2019
Apollo 13 (1995)
Corrected entry: When Engine 5 of the S-II booster fails, as Lovell is waiting for word from Houston, he stares at the abort handle. However, at that point, the escape tower had already been jettisoned, so turning the abort handle would not have done anything.
Correction: The abort handle would jettison the command and service modules. Look under Mode II here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_abort_modes.
Perhaps, but jettisoning the command module wouldn't have been of any use in a launch emergency. The purpose of the abort handle was to get the spacecraft away from an out-of-control booster that might crash, explode, or break apart (which was the fear with the center engine malfunction), so simply separating the CM wouldn't do any good without the rockets in the escape tower (which had already been jettisoned by that point) to propel the CM a safe distance away from the booster. In practical terms, the abort handle was no longer any use to the astronauts after jettisoning the tower, so Lovell fixating on it when he does in the movie is still a mistake.
As mentioned by David George please read the listed Wikipedia article. Quote: "With the LES jettisoned, the Command/Service Module (CSM) would separate as a whole from the rocket and use its large engine and RCS engines to move clear of the rocket and align itself. The CM would then separate from the SM and splash down." Source: 'https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_abort_modes' See: 'Mode II' So the movie does state a possible action for this moment and is not regarded as a factual mistake.
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Correction: She isn't Barbara Lovell, she was Fred Haise's wife Mary.
David George