Airport 1975
Encyclopedia
Airport 1975 is a 1974 disaster film
and the first sequel to the successful 1970 film Airport. It stars Charlton Heston
and Karen Black
and is directed by Jack Smight
.
This is one among many of a class of disaster films that became a movie-going craze during the 1970s. Its plot devices and characterizations, including a singing nun (Helen Reddy
), a former glamorous star (Gloria Swanson
as herself), an alcoholic (Myrna Loy
), a child in need of an organ transplant (Linda Blair
) and a chatterbox (Sid Caesar
) were parodied in 1980
's Airplane!
and on the Carol Burnett Show as "Disaster '75". The characteristics of Airport 1975 were used in numerous similar films to come, including the sequels Airport '77
and The Concorde ... Airport '79.
Derided by critics upon its release, Airport 1975 was nonetheless a commercial success. With a budget of US$4 million, the film made over US$47 million at the box office. Helen Reddy
was nominated for a Golden Globe Award
for Most Promising Newcomer - Female. The film was included in the book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time
published in 1978
.
-100 en route from Washington Dulles International Airport
to Los Angeles International Airport
. Scott Freeman, meanwhile, is a New Mexican
businessman with an urgent sales meeting in Boise, Idaho
. Failure to make this meeting threatens half his sales commissions for the coming year. He is en route in his private Beechcraft Baron
.
However, an occluded front
has the entire West Coast
socked in, with Los Angeles
reporting zero visibility. That not only affects the Columbia flight but also precludes Freeman making his meeting in Boise. Both flights are diverted to Salt Lake City International Airport
.
Freeman's small plane and the giant Boeing 747
enter Salt Lake's entry pattern. Air traffic control
assigns the jumbo to enter the pattern first, followed by the Beechcraft. As Columbia 409 is making its final approach, First Officer Urias feels a vibration on one of the adjacent panels and rises to check it out. Freeman, anxious about his missed meeting, makes a call to the Salt Lake Tower asking about the delay. The tower confirms that he is second to land after the big jet. Freeman suddenly suffers a massive heart attack. As he grabs his chest, the Baron falls out of the pattern and descends into the approach of Columbia 409.
The Beechcraft impacts the flight deck just above the co-pilot seat. First Officer Urias, still standing, is instantly blown from the cockpit. Flight Engineer Julio receives massive cranial trauma. Captain Stacey is struck in the face by debris and is blinded.
The impact knocks a male flight attendant from the upper lounge down to the cabin below. Nancy Pryor, the head flight attendant, rushes up to the flight deck to find Urias gone, Julio dead, and Stacey badly maimed. Fortunately, the captain is able to engage the autopilot and the altitude hold switch to keep the aircraft in the air before losing consciousness.
Pryor informs the Salt Lake control tower that the crew is dead or badly injured and that there is no one to fly the plane. She is told to stay on the same radio frequency. Pryor gives the assessment of the damage as a large hole on the starboard side of the flight deck that wiped out most of the instrument gauges over the engineer station.
Joe Patroni, Columbia's Vice President of Operations, is apprised of Flight 409's situation. He seeks the advice of Captain Al Murdoch, Columbia's chief flight instructor, who also happens to be Nancy Pryor's lover.
Patroni and Murdoch take the airline's executive jet to Salt Lake. En route, they communicate with Pryor, who is still in the cockpit. While the autopilot is keeping the aircraft in level flight, it is inoperable for turns. Something has to be done, as the jet is heading into the Wasatch Mountains. After successfully guiding Pryor by radio on how to perform the turn, radio communications are interrupted and the Salt Lake tower is unable to restore contact.
Unable to turn, leaking fuel, and dodging the peaks of the Wasatch Mountains, an air-to-air rescue attempt is undertaken from a jet-powered HH-53 Super Jolly Green Giant
helicopter flown by the USAF Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service. While the pilot is preparing to be released on a tether, it becomes apparent that 409 is heading straight into the side of a mountain. With radio communications still out, Pryor flies unaided.
Captain Stacey is able to give a cryptic clue regarding the decrease in airspeed during a climb in altitude. Pryor realizes that she must accelerate to be able to climb over the mountain and successfully does so. After 409 has leveled off, the pilot is released towards the stricken airliner. Just as Pryor is helping him in, the release cord from his harness becomes caught in the jagged metal surrounding the hole in the cockpit. As he climbs in, his harness is released from the tether and is sucked into one of the engines.
The only other person on the helicopter who can land a 747 is Captain Murdock. He is tethered to the rear of the helicopter, lowered to the jet and successfully enters it through the hole in the cockpit. He then lands the plane safely at Salt Lake City Airport, where the flight attendants successfully conduct an emergency evacuation of the passengers via the inflatable slides on the left side of the 747.
. Sid Caesar's character keeps referring to himself being in the movie, when in fact, he never was. The movie is "interrupted" as his scene is about to be shown.
Disaster film
A disaster film is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject...
and the first sequel to the successful 1970 film Airport. It stars Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston
Charlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
and Karen Black
Karen Black
Karen Black is an American actress, screenwriter, singer, and songwriter. She is noted for appearing in such films as Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Great Gatsby, Rhinoceros, The Day of the Locust, Nashville, Airport 1975, and Alfred Hitchcock's final film, Family Plot...
and is directed by Jack Smight
Jack Smight
Jack Smight was an American theatre and film director.Smight was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota and went to school with future actor Peter Graves...
.
This is one among many of a class of disaster films that became a movie-going craze during the 1970s. Its plot devices and characterizations, including a singing nun (Helen Reddy
Helen Reddy
Helen Reddy , often referred to as "The Queen of 70s Pop", is an Australian-American singer and actress. In the 1970s, she enjoyed international success, especially in the United States, where she placed fifteen singles in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. Six of those 15 songs made the Top 10...
), a former glamorous star (Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson
Gloria Swanson was an American actress, singer and producer. She was one of the most prominent stars during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille, made dozens of silents and was nominated for the first Academy Award in the...
as herself), an alcoholic (Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy
Myrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles...
), a child in need of an organ transplant (Linda Blair
Linda Blair
Linda Denise Blair is an American actress. Blair is best known for her role as the possessed child, Regan, in the 1973 film The Exorcist, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and two Golden Globes, winning one. She reprised her role in 1977's Exorcist II: The Heretic.-Biography:Blair...
) and a chatterbox (Sid Caesar
Sid Caesar
Isaac Sidney "Sid" Caesar is an Emmy award winning American comic actor and writer known as the leading man on the 1950s television series Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, and to younger generations as Coach Calhoun in Grease and Grease 2.- Early life :Caesar was born in Yonkers, New York,...
) were parodied in 1980
1980 in film
- Events :* May 21 - Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back is released and is the biggest grosser of the year ....
's Airplane!
Airplane!
Airplane! is a 1980 American satirical comedy film directed and written by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker and released by Paramount Pictures...
and on the Carol Burnett Show as "Disaster '75". The characteristics of Airport 1975 were used in numerous similar films to come, including the sequels Airport '77
Airport '77
Airport '77 is a 1977 disaster film and second sequel in the Airport franchise.The film stars a number of veteran actors, including Jack Lemmon, James Stewart, Joseph Cotten, Christopher Lee and Olivia de Havilland. Like its predecessors, Airport '77 was a box office hit earning US$30 million and...
and The Concorde ... Airport '79.
Derided by critics upon its release, Airport 1975 was nonetheless a commercial success. With a budget of US$4 million, the film made over US$47 million at the box office. Helen Reddy
Helen Reddy
Helen Reddy , often referred to as "The Queen of 70s Pop", is an Australian-American singer and actress. In the 1970s, she enjoyed international success, especially in the United States, where she placed fifteen singles in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. Six of those 15 songs made the Top 10...
was nominated for a Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
for Most Promising Newcomer - Female. The film was included in the book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time
The Fifty Worst Films of All Time
The Fifty Worst Films of All Time is a 1978 book by Harry Medved, with Randy Dreyfuss and Michael Medved. This book represents choices for the 50 worst sound films ever made, in alphabetical order...
published in 1978
1978 in film
The year 1978 in film involved some significant events.-Events:* February 1 - Bob Dylan's film Renaldo and Clara, a documentary of the "Rolling Thunder Revue" tour premieres in Los Angeles, California....
.
Plot
Columbia Airlines' Flight 409 is a Boeing 747Boeing 747
The Boeing 747 is a wide-body commercial airliner and cargo transport, often referred to by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet, or Queen of the Skies. It is among the world's most recognizable aircraft, and was the first wide-body ever produced...
-100 en route from Washington Dulles International Airport
Washington Dulles International Airport
Washington Dulles International Airport is a public airport in Dulles, Virginia, 26 miles west of downtown Washington, D.C. The airport serves the Baltimore-Washington-Northern Virginia metropolitan area centered on the District of Columbia. It is named after John Foster Dulles, Secretary of...
to Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport
Los Angeles International Airport is the primary airport serving the Greater Los Angeles Area, the second-most populated metropolitan area in the United States. It is most often referred to by its IATA airport code LAX, with the letters pronounced individually...
. Scott Freeman, meanwhile, is a New Mexican
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
businessman with an urgent sales meeting in Boise, Idaho
Boise, Idaho
Boise is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Idaho, as well as the county seat of Ada County. Located on the Boise River, it anchors the Boise City-Nampa metropolitan area and is the largest city between Salt Lake City, Utah and Portland, Oregon.As of the 2010 Census Bureau,...
. Failure to make this meeting threatens half his sales commissions for the coming year. He is en route in his private Beechcraft Baron
Beechcraft Baron
|-See also:- Further reading :*Harding, Stephen. U.S. Army Aircraft Since 1947. Shrewsbury, UK:Airlife Publishing, 1990. ISBN 1-85310-102-8.*Michell, Simon. Jane's Civil and Military Aircraft Upgrades 1994-95. Coulsdon, UK:Jane's Information Group, 1994. ISBN 0-7106-1208-7.*Taylor, John W. R....
.
However, an occluded front
Occluded front
An occluded front is formed during the process of cyclogenesis when a cold front overtakes a warm front. When this occurs, the warm air is separated from the cyclone center at the Earth's surface...
has the entire West Coast
West Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
socked in, with Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
reporting zero visibility. That not only affects the Columbia flight but also precludes Freeman making his meeting in Boise. Both flights are diverted to Salt Lake City International Airport
Salt Lake City International Airport
Salt Lake City International Airport is a major public airport in Utah. A joint civil-military facility, it is located in western Salt Lake City, approximately four miles from the central business district...
.
Freeman's small plane and the giant Boeing 747
Boeing 747
The Boeing 747 is a wide-body commercial airliner and cargo transport, often referred to by its original nickname, Jumbo Jet, or Queen of the Skies. It is among the world's most recognizable aircraft, and was the first wide-body ever produced...
enter Salt Lake's entry pattern. Air traffic control
Air traffic control
Air traffic control is a service provided by ground-based controllers who direct aircraft on the ground and in the air. The primary purpose of ATC systems worldwide is to separate aircraft to prevent collisions, to organize and expedite the flow of traffic, and to provide information and other...
assigns the jumbo to enter the pattern first, followed by the Beechcraft. As Columbia 409 is making its final approach, First Officer Urias feels a vibration on one of the adjacent panels and rises to check it out. Freeman, anxious about his missed meeting, makes a call to the Salt Lake Tower asking about the delay. The tower confirms that he is second to land after the big jet. Freeman suddenly suffers a massive heart attack. As he grabs his chest, the Baron falls out of the pattern and descends into the approach of Columbia 409.
The Beechcraft impacts the flight deck just above the co-pilot seat. First Officer Urias, still standing, is instantly blown from the cockpit. Flight Engineer Julio receives massive cranial trauma. Captain Stacey is struck in the face by debris and is blinded.
The impact knocks a male flight attendant from the upper lounge down to the cabin below. Nancy Pryor, the head flight attendant, rushes up to the flight deck to find Urias gone, Julio dead, and Stacey badly maimed. Fortunately, the captain is able to engage the autopilot and the altitude hold switch to keep the aircraft in the air before losing consciousness.
Pryor informs the Salt Lake control tower that the crew is dead or badly injured and that there is no one to fly the plane. She is told to stay on the same radio frequency. Pryor gives the assessment of the damage as a large hole on the starboard side of the flight deck that wiped out most of the instrument gauges over the engineer station.
Joe Patroni, Columbia's Vice President of Operations, is apprised of Flight 409's situation. He seeks the advice of Captain Al Murdoch, Columbia's chief flight instructor, who also happens to be Nancy Pryor's lover.
Patroni and Murdoch take the airline's executive jet to Salt Lake. En route, they communicate with Pryor, who is still in the cockpit. While the autopilot is keeping the aircraft in level flight, it is inoperable for turns. Something has to be done, as the jet is heading into the Wasatch Mountains. After successfully guiding Pryor by radio on how to perform the turn, radio communications are interrupted and the Salt Lake tower is unable to restore contact.
Unable to turn, leaking fuel, and dodging the peaks of the Wasatch Mountains, an air-to-air rescue attempt is undertaken from a jet-powered HH-53 Super Jolly Green Giant
MH-53 Pave Low
The Sikorsky MH-53 Pave Low series is a long-range combat search and rescue helicopter for the United States Air Force. The series was upgraded from the HH-53B/C, variants of the Sikorsky CH-53 Sea Stallion. The HH-53 "Super Jolly Green Giant" was initially developed to replace the HH-3 "Jolly...
helicopter flown by the USAF Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service. While the pilot is preparing to be released on a tether, it becomes apparent that 409 is heading straight into the side of a mountain. With radio communications still out, Pryor flies unaided.
Captain Stacey is able to give a cryptic clue regarding the decrease in airspeed during a climb in altitude. Pryor realizes that she must accelerate to be able to climb over the mountain and successfully does so. After 409 has leveled off, the pilot is released towards the stricken airliner. Just as Pryor is helping him in, the release cord from his harness becomes caught in the jagged metal surrounding the hole in the cockpit. As he climbs in, his harness is released from the tether and is sucked into one of the engines.
The only other person on the helicopter who can land a 747 is Captain Murdock. He is tethered to the rear of the helicopter, lowered to the jet and successfully enters it through the hole in the cockpit. He then lands the plane safely at Salt Lake City Airport, where the flight attendants successfully conduct an emergency evacuation of the passengers via the inflatable slides on the left side of the 747.
Cast
- Charlton HestonCharlton HestonCharlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
as Alan Murdock - Karen BlackKaren BlackKaren Black is an American actress, screenwriter, singer, and songwriter. She is noted for appearing in such films as Easy Rider, Five Easy Pieces, The Great Gatsby, Rhinoceros, The Day of the Locust, Nashville, Airport 1975, and Alfred Hitchcock's final film, Family Plot...
as Chief-Stewardess Nancy Pryor - George KennedyGeorge KennedyGeorge Harris Kennedy, Jr. is an American actor who has appeared in over 200 film and television productions. He is perhaps most familiar as the convict Dragline in Cool Hand Luke , airline troubleshooter Joe Patroni in the Airport series of disaster movies from the 1970s and...
as Joe Patroni - Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.Efrem Zimbalist, Jr.Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. is an American actor known for his starring roles in the television series 77 Sunset Strip and The F.B.I. He is also known as recurring character "Dandy Jim Buckley" in the series Maverick and as the voice behind the character Alfred Pennyworth in Batman: The Animated Series...
as Captain Stacy - Susan ClarkSusan ClarkSusan Clark is a Canadian actress, possibly best-known for her role as Katherine on the American television sitcom Webster, on which she appeared with her husband, Alex Karras.-Personal life:...
as Mrs. Patroni - Gloria SwansonGloria SwansonGloria Swanson was an American actress, singer and producer. She was one of the most prominent stars during the silent film era as both an actress and a fashion icon, especially under the direction of Cecil B. DeMille, made dozens of silents and was nominated for the first Academy Award in the...
as Herself - Martha ScottMartha ScottMartha Ellen Scott was an American actress best known for her roles as mother of the lead character in numerous films and television shows.-Early life:...
as Sister Beatrice - Helen ReddyHelen ReddyHelen Reddy , often referred to as "The Queen of 70s Pop", is an Australian-American singer and actress. In the 1970s, she enjoyed international success, especially in the United States, where she placed fifteen singles in the Top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100. Six of those 15 songs made the Top 10...
as Sister Ruth - Guy StockwellGuy StockwellGuy Harry Stockwell was an American actor who appeared in nearly 30 movies and 250 television series episodes....
as Col. Moss - Jerry StillerJerry StillerGerald Isaac "Jerry" Stiller is an American comedian and actor.He spent many years in the comedy team Stiller and Meara with his wife Anne Meara...
as Sam - Roy ThinnesRoy ThinnesRoy Thinnes is an American television and film actor best known for his portrayal of lonely hero David Vincent in the ABC 1967-68 television series The Invaders. He also played Alfred Wentworth in the pilot episode of Law & Order...
as First Officer Urias - Erik EstradaErik EstradaHenry Enrique "Erik" Estrada is an American police officer and actor, known for his co-starring lead role in the 1977–1983 United States police television series CHiPs...
as Flight Engineer Julio - Dana AndrewsDana AndrewsDana Andrews was an American film actor. He was one of Hollywood's major stars of the 1940s, and continued acting, though generally in less prestigious roles, into the 1980s.-Early life:...
as Scott Freeman - Sid CaesarSid CaesarIsaac Sidney "Sid" Caesar is an Emmy award winning American comic actor and writer known as the leading man on the 1950s television series Your Show of Shows and Caesar's Hour, and to younger generations as Coach Calhoun in Grease and Grease 2.- Early life :Caesar was born in Yonkers, New York,...
as Barney - Norman FellNorman FellNorman Fell , born Norman Noah Feld, was an American actor of film and television, most famous for his role as landlord Mr. Roper on the sitcom Three's Company and its spin-off, The Ropers.-Early life:...
as Bill - Linda BlairLinda BlairLinda Denise Blair is an American actress. Blair is best known for her role as the possessed child, Regan, in the 1973 film The Exorcist, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award and two Golden Globes, winning one. She reprised her role in 1977's Exorcist II: The Heretic.-Biography:Blair...
as Janice Abbott - Nancy OlsonNancy OlsonNancy Ann Olson is an American actress.In Sunset Boulevard she played Betty Schaefer, for which she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress...
as Mrs. Abbott - Kip Niven as Lt. Thatcher
- Ed NelsonEd NelsonEdwin Stafford Nelson is an American actor.Nelson has appeared in numerous television shows, more than fifty motion pictures, and hundreds of stage productions. Until 2005, he was teaching acting and screenwriting in his native New Orleans at two local universities there...
as Maj. Alexander - Beverly GarlandBeverly GarlandBeverly Garland was an American film and television actress, businesswoman, and hotel owner. Garland gained prominence for her role as Fred MacMurray's second wife, "Barbara Harper Douglas", in the 1960s sitcom My Three Sons...
as Mrs. Freeman - Myrna LoyMyrna LoyMyrna Loy was an American actress. Trained as a dancer, she devoted herself fully to an acting career following a few minor roles in silent films. Originally typecast in exotic roles, often as a vamp or a woman of Asian descent, her career prospects improved following her portrayal of Nora Charles...
as Mrs. Devaney - Linda Harrison as Winnie (credited as Augusta Summerland)
- Sharon GlessSharon GlessSharon Marguerite Gless is an American character actress of stage, film and television, who is best known for her roles as Maggie Philbin on Switch , as Sgt. Christine Cagney in the police procedural drama series Cagney & Lacey and as Debbie Novotny in the Showtime cable television series Queer...
as Stewardess Sharon - Christopher NorrisChristopher Norris (actress)Christopher Norris is an American movie and television actress. She is probably best known for her portrayal of nurse Gloria "Ripples" Brancusi in the CBS television series Trapper John, M.D....
as Stewardess Bette - Irene TsuIrene TsuIrene Tsu is a Chinese American actress who started in the film adaptation Flower Drum Song in 1961 and has had many subsequent roles in TV and films...
as Stewardess Carol - Terry LesterTerry LesterTerry Lester was an American actor.Lester was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, graduating from high school at Southport High School, and began an acting career while at DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. His acting career consisted of musical theater, concert performances, numerous primetime...
as Mr. Kelly - Laurette Spang as Stewardess Arlene
- Aldine King as Stewardess Aldine
- Amy Farrell as Stewardess Amy
- Christiane SchmidtmerChristiane SchmidtmerChristiane Schmidtmer was a German actress, fashion model and nude model of the 1960s and 1970s.-Early life:Christiane Schmidtmer was born in Mannheim, Germany to Gertrud and Jakob Schmidtmer on Christmas Eve 1939...
as Passenger Angie Bell (uncredited)
Trivia
The in flight movie is American GraffitiAmerican Graffiti
American Graffiti is a 1973 coming of age film co-written/directed by George Lucas starring Richard Dreyfuss, Ron Howard, Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Cindy Williams, Candy Clark, Mackenzie Phillips and Harrison Ford...
. Sid Caesar's character keeps referring to himself being in the movie, when in fact, he never was. The movie is "interrupted" as his scene is about to be shown.
External links
- Photo of the aircraft used in the film prior to retirement in 2005: http://www.jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=142301