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At a certain point during "SST: Death Flight", one of the passengers calms the others by saying that it's more dangerous to cross the street in a big city like New York, than to fly over the Atlantic in an airplane. He's probably correct, statistically speaking, but that most definitely wasn't the impression you got during the 70s, what with all the disaster movies with airplanes around that time! You could easily lose track of all the aviation disaster movies that were made during these two decades. There's the legendary "Airplane" series, of course, but also other random classics ("Skyjacked", "The Doomsday Flight", "The Crowded Sky", ...) and a whole lot of TV-movies-of-the-week. "SST: Death Flight" is a very formulaic, and by the looks of it also a rather unpopular movie, but I still found it enjoyable.

The problem with this film, and with practically every other made-for-TV disaster movie from the same period, is that it too much feels like a "light-version" of the aforementioned "Airport" series. It's always about a wide range of characters, struggling with their own banal private problems, gathering aboard an aircraft - usually for its maiden voyage - that will crash if it weren't for a handful of heroic people sacrificing themselves. "SST: Death Flight" at least tries to go the extra mile, with not one but TWO deadly issues. The supersonic jetliner's hydraulic system gets sabotaged by a frustrated company employee (who is stupid enough to be on board of the plane he sabotaged) and a doctor from the WHO brought a deadly African flu-virus in his suitcase.

You perfectly know what else to expect. Lots of familiar faces from the TV and cinema industry, usually long after their glory days, and you can generally predict straight away whether they'll be survivors or martyrs at the end. "SST: Death Flight" honestly isn't that bad if you embrace all the clichés and stereotypes. The performances, as well as David Lowell Rich's direction, are competent. Besides, Billy Crystal had to start his career somewhere, right?

I am surprised that the score is so low. Okay, I admit the movie is technically bad but at least we got to see a lot of familiar faces here. You rarely see that in a TV movie. This is the only time I've seen Regis Philban in a movie of any kind. It was hard to recognize Billy Crystal. Probably the coolest part of this movie was when it showed that explosion. A pity it was just that one scene. I know that this movie is really clichéd. It probably helps that "Airplane!" is my favorite comedy too. They mocked stuff like this perfectly.

The version I saw was 92 minutes (on "Mystery Science Theater 3000"). This says it's only 89 minutes. Wow, that is the first time I have ever heard of a movie having a longer version being shown like that. It was certainly an interesting episode as it was their longest ever. Yeah, it's not worth watching on its own, but I think there have been many worse disaster films. I guess it probably did go on too long and there's still nothing unique about it. **

The success of "Airport", "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno" proved there was a big appetite for disaster movies so naturally television felt they had to get into the act by offering their own lower budget knockoffs of the Irwin Allen disaster movie formula. "SST: Disaster In The Sky" is the ultimate example of this, since not only do we see a gaggle of 70s TV stars (all of whom it should be noted had one thing in common at the time. Their once popular series had all been cancelled by then!) like Robert Reed, Martin Milner, Peter Graves etc. we even see two future 80s TV stars Billy Crystal and John DeLancie in smaller roles (I hope David Letterman some day springs a clip of this on Crystal the next time he appears on the show). That alone is enough to make you keep watching despite the bad dialogue (characters have to engage in a lot of implausible exposition at various points in order for certain things to make sense), cheap FX and silly plot resolutions at the climax. Heck, "SST" is even better than some of the worst theatrical disaster movies coming out by then like the dreadful "Concorde: Airport 1979" so if you loved the quality disaster movies of the time like "Airport" and "Towering Inferno" settle back and enjoy this intriguing TV knockoff of the genre.

Let me say straight away that this movie is toxic waste for the mind. This movie is not watchable because it has a good story; it doesn't. It's not watchable because there's good acting; there is none. It's watchable because of the cast. This will take you down TV memory lane...how many former TV stars can you pick out?

As with any TV "Movie of the Week", the drawing power is in the stars. The story involves the inaugural flight of "Maiden One" the first supersonic transport plane. (The movie ignores the fact that it was a British-French conglomerate that first built the Concorde, and had to sue for the right to land in America during this time.) In this movie, we have a disgruntled worker who sabotages the flight by putting detergent in the hydraulic lines in order to get revenge on his boss (Burgess Meredith).

We also have Doug McClure trying to get back into Tina Louise's pants, Billy Crystal playing a rather fey steward, John Delancie in training for his future role as Q, and Peter Graves as one half of a former May-December romance. Did I mention that there also happens to be a plot line about the airplane carrying the Senegal flu, which is now spreading among the crew? If you don't have sabotage, you've got the untamed strain of flu floating around.

There are two references that date this movie. One is a reference to the "Swine flu". The other is the way that Burt Convy discusses abortion with his bimbo girlfriend -- the concept is mentioned, but she won't let him say the word.

The movie does have a reverse natural selection -- the megastars like Meredith & Graves die, but losers like Convy, McClure, etc. live to make another bad TV movie. Check out the cameo of Regis Philbin (and his hair) as an annoying TV reporter.

Sterno says SST Death Flight is a guilty pleasure.

That so many good actors would get together in such a bad film. This movie's premise seems to be "take a cast, put them on an SST, and then subject them to trouble after trouble." I also find it hard to believe that so many good actors would have an off day every day of filming and at the same time. How many of their careers didn't get ruined by this film is beyond me, especially that of John de Lancie. Avoid this one at all costs. Airport '79 was a much better film, and Airplane! was a whole lot funnier.

This film essentially begins with the news that a brand new American supersonic transport (SST) is about to embark on its maiden voyage from New York to Paris. Naturally, a number of people are excited about this, and the flight is booked with celebrities and members of the press. One person who isn't happy, however, is an engineer by the name of "Les Phillips" (George Maharis) who decides to sabotage the aircraft hoping that, once in flight, it will have to turn back and thereby embarrass the people who passed him over for promotion. What he doesn't count on, however, is the CEO of the company "Marshall Cole" (Lorne Greene) disregarding the advice of his main engineer "Willy Bassett" (Burgess Meredith) and ordering the pilot "Captain Jim Walsh" (Robert Reed) to continue on with the flight anyway--and this results in severe repercussions for everyone involved. Now, rather than reveal any more, I will just say that this was an okay "Airport" clone which clearly benefitted from having several established actors in the cast with Peter Graves (as "Paul Whitley"), Doug McClure ("Hank Fairbanks"), Misty Rowe ("Angelea Garland") and Tina Louise ("Mae") to name just a few. Admittedly, it suffers to a certain degree from its made-for-television format, but even so, it managed to pass the time well enough, and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Of course this is maybe the one hundred and first AIRPORT rip off, in the line of the disaster movies fashion which proliferated in the seventies. And Dave Lowell Rich was a specialist for this kind of topic. Of course, you find here so many clichés already seen dozens of times before...of course nothing new, but that remains rather pleasant to watch, and I have seen far far worse in that disaster movies field.

Another TV movie disaster movie of the week. Another group of stock characters is portrayed by ABC network stock players. Another way to waste a few hours. And Misty Rowe topless. HUH? This must have been one of those infamous European versions ABC would send overseas with extra footage. I know I didn't see the Misty Rowe scene on network TV. And I certainly didn't hear Burgess Meredith utter a certain four-letter word on the movie's original broadcast. Oh well, this movie isn't a thrill ride, but its never boring.

I watch a lot of disaster movies, and while I wouldn't place this with the Towering Inferno or The Poseidon Adventure, I enjoyed this a lot. I was surprised it was a TV movie because the acting was so good. They spent enough time for character development. There were several subplots, but that is true for many many disaster movies. I got this movie as part of a collection and some of the movies were really bad. This one was worth at least twice what I paid for the set. I will be watching this movie at least 3 times a year and definitely will recommend it to anyone who likes this kind of film. This movie was well worth my time. I was shocked that the only other review was really bad.

George Maharis didn't do much after leaving the series ROUTE 66 c-starring Martin Milner (who wound up with a bland replacement for a final bland season), and yet he worked plenty... on perhaps the wrong things: a load of episodic guest appearances on various episodic dramas, as well as TV-movies..

One in particular wielding his usual edgy persona for the disaster-thriller DEATH FLIGHT (originally titled SST: DEATH FLIGHT) where, surprisingly, Robert Reed turns in an intense performance as a Concord pilot forced to join with former workmate Doug McClure to, of course, save all the passengers, consisting of the usual list of familiar 1970's faces...

Between AIRPORT-style romantic melodramas between passenger-couples, from Bert Convy with Misty Rowe, McClure with Tina Louise, Season Hubley with Peter Graves while future airplane disaster BREAKING BAD actor John de Lancie (who died while Jeff Bridges survived a plane crash in FEARLESS) complains in-between: And while infamous, this FLIGHT isn't boring as there's no stopping the bad-luck domino effect beyond the initial sabotage by Maharis...

Leading to a virus outbreak: a double-whammy for hypochondriacs afraid to fly... plus they might run out of gas to reach their only safe destination... and, ironically, as a memorial to George Maharis, Martin Milner (with fiance Susan Strasberg) plays a has-been football star with the energy and performance-quality equaling Reed... but sadly, there are no scenes with his fellow ROUTE 66 traveler Maharis, RIP in 2023, in this pretty good TV-movie.

A plethora of stars are here. I was surprised to see a fay Billy Crystal, annoying Regis, Mike Brady, Burgess, Ginger, Q, Peter Graves. It's Titanic in the sky as anything that can go wrong does go wrong on this plane's maiden voyage. Lots of sub plots are thrown at you and still no story can be found. I loved the realism of how passengers could easily walk up and down aisles freely during the flight. This wild ride couldn't end any faster for me.

Being a fan of the boys of Route 66, I just had to see this movie. However, I was very disappointed that they never even bothered to give Marty and George one scene together. Nevertheless, I kept watching and laughed all the way through. Of course, I was watching the MST3K version and I would suggest all do the same if you can find it. I mean, George Maharis is mad at Burgess Meredith (who built the plane), so he puts detergent in the hydraulic system, hoping that when things get bad, Robert Reed will turn the plane around. Bobby doesn't listen to him, and well, you can figure out the rest. That, along with a bunch of other ridiculously funny happenings, including nice-guy Bert Convy dating a bimbo (Miss SST!), make this a MUST SEE for fans of all that was bad 70's TV.

The truth is that about 80% of the people who see (have seen) this movie won't like it. Why? Because it is not that original. But in saying that, I happen to belong to the 20% who really like it.

I first saw it back in the eighties when I was about 8 or 9 years old. Now almost 20 years on I saw it again, and it really brought back nostalgic memories from when I was a kid.

Some people say this movie has bad acting. I don't agree at all. While the story might not be the best ever, there is definitely nothing wrong with the acting. And the supersonic Maiden One plane looks absolutely stunning, even though it is 70's B-TV-movie material.

I really recommend it to fans of disaster movies. It is hard to get a hold of these days, but if you have a chance to see it, do so.

This is a very enjoyable disaster movie, about yet another one of those star-filled planes heading for trouble. This time, a Concorde is sabotaged, and if that wasn´t enough, there is also a virus spreading inside the plane. The film has everything an airplane-disaster movie buff could ask for: tacky effects, lots of stars and fun dialogue. Pretty good stuff.

This, according to most, was not the best film of all time! And, perhaps they're right, but one never knows just what can happen when you see a film. My winter vacation had already been planned when, one Monday evening in February 1982, I saw "SST: Disaster in the Sky" (one of its other names). It only took me 'til Friday to call my travel agent and change my destination from Columbus, Ohio to Dakar, Senegal. I took off within a few days and with no hotel, old French and a small bag, I landed in Dakar. It turned out to be one of the best experiences of my life. For that reason, this movie for me is a 10! No one ever said that a film had to win Oscars in every category to have a profound effect on the viewer. This one did it for me and that is why I watch it whenever it's on TV. Unfortunately, so many years have passed, that no channel shows it anymore. Ah, if only there were a DVD. I'd buy it immediately.

With a cast of 1970s TV stalwarts and a lame-sounding plot, I was preparing for the worst. However, I was pleasantly surprised that this film, although it wouldn't win any awards, was quite watchable.

A group of familiar TV faces (including Peter Graves, Robert Reed, Burgess Meredith, Bert Convy, George Maharis, Lorne Greene, Season Hubley, Doug McClure, and Tina Louise) takes off for disaster on a new supersonic airliner. The opening sequences establish that many of the characters absolutely hate each other, setting the stage for high drama in the sky. Angry bad guy Les Phillips (Maharis) sabotages the plane's hydraulic systems (apparently because he wants a promotion), leading to the inevitable crisis as the good guys (Reed, McClure, Brock Peters, and Meredith) fight to save the plane and passengers. Throw in a deadly virus that has escaped some onboard containers, and things get hairy pretty fast. Burgess Meredith saves the day with a pair of pliers, and the final crash landing seems a little contrived but overall the movie's not bad.

As with all disaster movies, the plot is pretty easy to figure out, and the next crisis is always predictable, but it was fun to see a lot of familiar 1970s actors again. Billy Crystal and Regis Philbin even appear, and boy are they young! The "special effects" are really atrocious, as an unconvincing model clumsily flies on a wire though the whole movie. However, you could do a lot worse than this TV disaster film, especially if you lived through the 70s.

PS-One final question: after Maharis sabotaged the plane, why on earth did he get on board it?

I fail to understand the hateful low rating comments over this made-for-TV 1970s movie.

It was the 1970's.

A very different era in television and film writing, production, and casting with a war going on amongst other political propaganda of the time.

Television was a severe escape with HBO and Cinemax breaking ground for home video "streaming"

I was just a child. But remember being fascinated by the stars in this movie, especially Tina Louse AKA Gilligan's Island fame. The sexy star-studded redhead we all came to adore as Ginger Grant. Playing a hapless Stewardess in a very good role of depth and character amongst top stars like Peter Graves, Burgess Meredith, Robert Reed, and Martin Milner. Who each played a valued role as pilots and passengers trying to keep the infamous flight going, despite the deadly leak below ship.

Perhaps a few of the characters appeared wishy washy, but that's how they were written for this movie, so no need to bad-mouth performances because of causal writing.