Falling from the Sky: Flight 174 (1995) (TV)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Jorge Montesi

Writers (WGA):

William Hoffer (book) and
Marilyn Hoffer (book) ...

Release Date:

20 February 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

True story of a brand-new Canadian airliner running out of fuel in-flight and forced to glide to the nearest airfield.

Plot Keywords:

Boeing 767 | Disaster | Run Out Of Gas | Glider | Aviation

Cast

William Devane	...	Capt. Bob Pearson
Scott Hylands	...	Maurice Quintal
Shelley Hack	...	Lynn Brown
Kevin McNulty	...	Larry Roberts
Gwynyth Walsh	...	Pearl Dion
Gloria Carlin
Suzy Joachim	...	Florence Bisaillon
Nicholas Turturro	...	Al Williams
Winston Rekert	...	Rick Dion
Mariette Hartley	...	Beth Pearson
Philip Granger	...	Phil Lyons
Phil Hayes	...	Bob Rand (as Philip Hayes)
David Lewis	...	Frank Farr
Sheelah Megill	...	Mrs. Hebert
John Novak	...	Len Daniels

Also Known As:

Freefall: Flight 174 (Canada: English title) (UK)
Vol 767 en détresse (Canada: French title)

Runtime:

USA:93 min

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Netherlands:12 | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Montréal, Québec, Canada

Company:

Hill/Fields Entertainment

Trivia:

Cameo: [Robert Pearson]The real-life Captain of the doomed Air Canada plane appears as an inspector evaluating two pilots on a flight simulator. His only line in the whole movie is auto-biographic: "It isn't a dream. It happened."

Goofs:

Factual errors: Throughout, in straight and level flight, the Primary Flight Displays show a steep climb.

Quotes:

Maurice Quintal: It's the first time in my life I'd rather be on the ground than in the air.

Too many errors

This may have been based on historical events, and we know that the makers of this TV docu-drama took liberties to make it more dramatic - I can live with that - but it was just so badly done! I was amazed in the event of an unfolding mid-air crisis how calm everyone seemed, surely someone would have panicked, and what a smooth flight, no passenger discomfort apparent - come on! Not sure about the regulations, nowadays some of the airline security stuff seems OTT nonsense, but why take your shoes off before the emergency landing, common sense tells me this is not a good idea! The shots of this massive airliner coming down on this remote airstrip were unconvincing and fake. In reality it would have been an awesome sight viewed from the ground nearby, in this movie it was out of proportion and looked like the model it probably was. Escape slides appeared at the front and mid emergency doors, yet nobody appeared to exit from the front, even though the drop was much less. The Captain went back into the plane after the landing - why? this was never explained. We know the emergency landing was due to being out of fuel, but even so there must have been some fuel sloshing around at the bottom of the tanks, and the risk of explosion must have been a very real danger, yet the evacuation seemed almost leisurely, and everyone stands around at the foot of the escape slides instead of getting as far away as possible, as I am sure I would have done. There were just too many inconsistencies, errors and faked action in this. I would have preferred to have seen a representation of the drama in real time, and with realistic motion of the plane portrayed. It had the potential to be quite thrilling, but doubtless due to the budget restrictions failed, and made one feel that a plane losing all engines was no big deal really, and you would safely glide down to a bit of a bumpy landing, but no real danger! - the reality of course being somewhat different!