Airport '77

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Airport '77
Directed by Jerry Jameson
Produced by Jennings Lang
William Frye
Written by Charles Kuenstle (story)
Michael Scheff
David Spector (screenplay)
Starring Jack Lemmon
Lee Grant
James Stewart
Music by John Cacavas (score)
Tom Sullivan
Cinematography Philip H. Lathrop
Rexford Metz
Editing by Robert Watts
J. Terry Williams
Distributed by Universal
Release date(s) March 11, 1977
Running time 113 min.
Language English
Preceded by Airport 1975
Followed by The Concorde: Airport '79
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Airport '77 is a 1977 disaster film and second sequel in the Airport franchise. The film is generally considered the best of the sequels due to the quality of the writing and acting, even if the technical feasibility of the ditching and subsequent submersion of a fully pressurised 747 might be questioned.[citation needed] The film starred 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 [1] but marked the series' progression into increasingly unlikely plots.

Contents

[edit] Plot

A privately owned luxury Boeing 747, Stevens' Flight 23 (call sign two-three sierra heavy) complete with piano bar, office, and bedroom, is used to ferry invited guests to an estate owned by wealthy philanthropist Philip Stevens (James Stewart). Valuable artwork of the Stevens' private collection is also onboard the jetliner, to be eventually displayed in his new museum. Such a collection motivates a group of thieves led by co-pilot Bob Chambers (Robert Foxworth) to hijack the aircraft in the hopes of landing it on an abandoned airfield on St. George Island.

Once pilot Don Gallagher leaves the cockpit, the hijackers' plans go into motion. A sleeping gas is released into the cabin and the passengers lose consciousness. Knocking out the flight engineer, Chambers puts the plan in motion, and Stevens' Flight 23 "disappears" into the Bermuda Triangle. Descending to virtual wave-top altitude, Flight 23 heads into a fog bank, reducing visibility to less than a mile. Minutes later, a large offshore drilling platform emerges from the haze, Flight 23 heading straight for it at close to 600 knots.

Raising the plane.
Raising the plane.

Chambers pulls back on the stick in a banking left turn but the Number 4 engine clips the derrick, causing the engine to catch fire. Chambers immediately hits the fire extinguishing button and flames are momentarily extinguished. However, because the aircraft is at such a low altitude, the sudden loss of airspeed threatens to stall the airplane. As the engine reignites, Chambers is forced to use another fire-suppression bottle. But by this time, the aircraft stall alarm goes off and the aircraft is not recoverable. The aircraft impacts the water, ripping off all four engines from their pylons, and eventually comes to a halt, then beginning to slip beneath the waves.

The ocean bottom is fortunately above the crush-depth of the fuselage. Many of the passengers are injured with some seriously. Two of the would-be thieves are killed in the initial crash. (Monte Markham) is killed in the hold securing the art for the transfer when a cargo container causes a breach of the outer skin, for the compartment floods and (Markham) is drowned. The second fatality is (Michael Pataki) who is on the flight deck with Chambers who is killed when he is slammed into the flight panel on impact.

Since the aircraft was off course, search and rescue efforts are focused in the wrong area. Involved in these efforts is Phillip Stevens and Joe Patroni (George Kennedy, who is in all Airport movies). The only way to signal rescue efforts to the proper region is to get a signal buoy to the surface in a small dinghy. Captain Gallagher and diver Martin Wallace (Christopher Lee) enter the main cargo in the attempt, but an unexpected triggering of the hatch crushes Wallace. Gallagher, out of oxygen provided by the dive gear, makes it to the surface, and activates the beacon after he climbs into the dinghy. Getting a fix on the new signal, an S-3 Viking overflies the crash site, confirming the location of Flight 23.

The navy then dispatches a sub-recovery ship, the USS Cayuga (LST-1186) with a flotilla of other vessels. The aircraft is ringed with balloons and once inflated, the aircraft rises from the bottom of the seafloor. Once on the surface, the passengers are evacuated. First Officer Chambers is killed on the way up when he is pinned under a sofa. With the survivors on their way to waiting ships, Captain Gallagher and the head stewardess (Brenda Vacarro) are the last to evacuate from the aircraft as it slips under the waves for the last time.

[edit] Cast

A casualty in the aftermath of the disaster (played by Lee Grant).
A casualty in the aftermath of the disaster (played by Lee Grant).

[edit] Sequels

[edit] Trivia

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • Footage of Airport '77 was used in an episode of the television program Airwolf. [2]
  • Footage of the 747 crashing in the ocean was also used on two episodes of Days of our Lives in 2005.
  • A water landing, especially the hard landing depicted in the film, would certainly break up the fuselage of a 747.
  • When NBC-TV first aired Airport 77 in September 1978, 70 mins of deleted footage was added to the broadcast most of the deleted footage consisted of the main characters having flash backs to previous events in their lives prior to boarding their ill fated flight, as well as additional footage on the plane. The first 3 mins of the television broadcast version was newly filmed footage showing how the terrorists stole the gas from a warehouse used to knock out the passengers and crew on the 747. Because of this extended version NBC aired the movie as a 4 hour two night event.

All subsequent broadcasts on cable television and all VHS and DVD releases have been the original 113 min theatrical version.

  • Airport '77 is often shown on Sky Movies Modern Greats.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Airport - Box Office History
  2. ^ Flight #093 Is Missing (Airwolf, Season #2, Episode #21, Nov. 17, 1984)

[edit] External links