The role of Cameron Poe was originally offered to Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell, but both actors declined to appear in the film because both Stallone and Russell hated the script.
The film is dedicated to Phil Swartz, an effects specialist who died during filming, when a rigged plane fell and crushed him. This is actually the second Jerry Bruckheimer production where there was a plane related death on set. Eleven years earlier, Art Scholl, a pilot/cameraman, died during filming of Top Gun (1986) when his camera plane failed to recover from a spin and plunged into the Pacific Ocean.
The U.S. Marshals, who run the actual Con Air program, wanted nothing to do with this movie.