Terror at 35,000 Feet and Falling
Panic in the Skies! is a 1996 American made-for television disaster film that is directed by Paul Ziller and was premiered on The Family Channel on October 13, 1996. The film stars Kate Jackson, Ed Marinaro, Maureen McCormick, and Erik Estrada.
During take-off for a flight to Europe, Royce Air International Flight 115 is struck by lightning. Although the flight continues, the lightning strike has killed the flight crew and disabled the radio communications to the ground. Laurie Ann Pickett, the senior flight attendant, enlists the aid of passenger Brett Young, and together, they determine that the autopilot can bring the aircraft in for a landing.
The autopilot that they rely on begins to malfunction, homing in on airfield transponders at random, even airports that are too small to accommodate the large jet-liner. Both Laurie and Brett realize they may have to find a way to land the aircraft by themselves. Veering to a completely new heading, the airliner turns from its flightpath over the Atlantic Ocean to fly to the Pacific Coast of North America.
On the ground, FAA Air Traffic Control officials who have lost radio contact with the 747, start a debate as to when the aircraft should be shot down to prevent a more disastrous crash in a heavily populated area.
This film has the examples of:
- Ambiguous Situation: Brett is wanted by the FBI, but we only have his word to go on as to why. He says he's a whistleblower against a company that has large government contracts, but it's never revealed if that is true or not. Laurie must have believed him as she covers for him when the FBI arrive to apprehend him when the plane finally lands.
- Artistic License – Engineering: The autopilot depicted in the film. In an actual airliner, the autopilot does not randomly home in on any airport's VOR signal and must have a flight plan programmed into it.
- Artistic License – Geography: Eventually, the plane comes to a landing in Vancouver. They pictured Vancouver as a tiny airport with a runway just as narrow as a taxiway. Vancouver Airport is not JFK, however it is almost as large. The news bulletin says that all the fire trucks and ambulances from the city were called in, and it’s only about a dozen vehicles in total. That makes Vancouver the smallest city in Canada.
- Artistic License – Physics: It is common that planes get struck by lightning, and when they do, the electricity disperses itself on the fuselage and there is barely any damage.
- Billions of Buttons: Averted. While the protagonists are intimidated by the number of controls in the cockpit, most, if not all, of them are useless as the plane's electrical system is fried.
- Blatant Lies: When the autopilot makes a random and turbulent heading change, the passengers start to panic. Laurie tries to calm them by announcing, "It's just the landing gear. Everybody calm down, it's just the landing gear." No one is buying it.
- Catastrophic Countdown: Air traffic control has a countdown timer until the plane runs out of fuel. The remaining fuel is one factor in determining whether to shoot the plane down so it cannot crash into a populated area.
- Cell Phones Are Useless: Twice. First, the lightning strike takes out the plane's radio and air phones. Second, after getting bitten by a dog in the cargo bay and nearly asphyxiating, the cell phone they retrieved turns out to be useless as there is no signal.
- Coming in Hot: The plane is flying "heavy" and the autopilot is locking onto airports at random. Several of the airports are far too small to accommodate a 747, and the plane nearly crash lands on a small airstrip while still holding several hours worth of fuel.
- Corporate Conspiracy: Supposedly the reason Brett is wanted by the FBI - he has exfiltrated evidence and is going to blow the whistle.
- Death Faked for You: Brett is wanted by the FBI, and they are waiting to apprehend him when the plane lands. The plane had a "jump seater" flying with the pilots and engineer in the cockpit, so there were four bodies instead of the expected three. Laurie, believing Brett to have been telling the truth about why he was wanted by the FBI (he was a whistleblower), tells the FBI that she did see him on the flight, and that there are four bodies in the upstairs galley and "one of them must be him".
- Every Car Is a Pinto: During a turbulent heading change, a Corvette in the cargo bay breaks free of its straps and starts rolling around (someone forget to set the parking brake?). The camera focuses on a stream of fuel leaking from it. In the last act, it is shown multiple times rolling back and forth, leaking fuel. Right as the plane is beginning its final approach, it suddenly bursts into flames. note
- Exact Time to Failure: Surprisingly played straight and averted with the ATC's estimated flight time clock. Averted in that an ATC controller questions it reading zero saying they had 10 minutes of fuel left; the ATC director corrects him that they did, but the climb after the previous aborted landing burned up most of that. Played straight in that the counter suddenly jumps from 10 minutes to zero.
- Freeze-Frame Ending: The movie ends on a freeze-frame of Laurie smiling toward Brett as he walks into the sunset.
- Instant Emergency Response: Played straight at the end and justified in that the ATC was tracking the plane and could calculate its likely landing site; they also knew the plane was just about out of fuel. This allowed them to give emergency responders a heads up. Averted for the near landing in rural Farmingdale where disaster was only averted by a guy smashing the VOR beacon transmitter with a chair.
- Jump Scare: When the pilot's burned arm falls through the access panel in the first class area as the protagonists are trying to get access to the cockpit. Complete with Scare Chord.
- Just Plane Wrong:
- While the exterior shots of the plane are fairly consistent in that they all depict some model of Boeing 747, the interior looks more like a McDonnell Douglas DC-10.
- The New York ATC control room is depicted as a small room located in an office. The controller uses a computer monitor, and the flight appears as “RAI 115-H” only. This control room, which is not busy at all, can even spot the aircraft on any position in the North American continent.
- The autopilot looks more like an iPhone app or videogame. A more realistic onboard computer, or Flight Management System, would have been a black display with monospaced green characters, and a small keypad underneath it.
- When the aircraft begins to run out of fuel an engine flames out and the plane does not even bank. Presumably the autopilot kept the plane on a straight pattern. Totally unlike the 747 involved in China Airlines Flight 006
that lost control over the Pacific Ocean when an engine flamed out and the plane was left on autopilot: the plane banked almost to 90 degrees and plunged 30,000 feet before the pilot could regain control. - When the plane gets struck by lightning, the instruments are fried and there is a fire inside. However the glass should have broken or at least cracked with the tremendous amount of electricity suddenly shot at the cockpit. This, however, would have made the aircraft impossible to fly above 12,000 to 14,000 feet.
- The Captain is sitting in the right-hand seat where the co-pilot should be.
- The aircraft is supposed to fly a 6-hour trip to London, yet it has more than 13 hours of fuel onboard. That would have made a pretty heavy landing in London.
- Hand Wave: The movie lampshades that a plane getting hit by lightning is usually no big deal. But if the bolts are of opposite charges...
- Hollywood Hacking: A passenger is somehow able to interface an Apple Power Book into the flight management computer to regain at least some control over the aircraft.
- Magical Computer:
- Despite its schizophrenic nature, the autopilot depicted in this film is certainly more impressive than what we even have today.
- Somehow, the Power Book laptop they interface with the autopilot manages to run for over 12 hours on its battery. note
- Percussive Maintenance:
- The laptop they have hooked into the flight management system is only able to display data and perform some very rudimentary functions. Any time they want to change the plane's heading or destination, they are forced to jiggle a sparking cable until the autopilot responds favorably. note
- The attendant at the tiny Farmingdale airport doesn't have the keys or authority to shut off the VOR beacon that is drawing the much too large 747 to that airstrip, so he opts to smash the transmitter with a chair.
- Retirony: Played with. Early in the film it is stated that this will be Laurie's last flight before she retires.
- Reverse Polarity: In real life, lightning strikes on planes are common. When that happens, the electricity disperses mostly harmlessly across the plane's fuselage. In the film, they even allude to that but then claim that the lightning bolts must have been of opposite charges.
- Riding into the Sunset: Brett is last seen walking away from the crash and into the sunset, giving a final wave at Laurie as he goes.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: A large dog in the cargo bay gets loose and becomes scared and aggressive while Brett and Laurie are looking for a cell phone in the baggage area.
- Stock Footage: The various external shots of the plane show multiple different liveries as the exterior plane footage was recycled from various other sources.
- Trauma Conga Line: Charlene, another flight attendant, is on her first flight since surviving a crash of another 747 a year earlier. She spends half the movie nearly catatonic.
- Viewer-Friendly Interface: The autopilot display looks more like a modern phone app than a real-life Flight Management System.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Midway through the film, an unattended coffee maker starts a fire in the lower galley prompting Brett and Laurie to rescue another flight attendant from the elevator. That fire is never investigated nor mentioned again. note
