Crash

There were two different tv films made in 1978 about the crash of the L-1011 Jet Flight 401 in December 1972 where almost 100 people died. In the Ghost of Flight 401 with Ernest Borgnine, they explored the supernatural aspect of this tragedy where the ghosts of Robert Loft and Don Repo were seen on other planes that had parts taken from the wreckage. John G. Fuller wrote a very interesting book on the subject. It doesn't matter if you believe in ghosts or not, it still made for a wonderful book and a fine movie. Its astounding to me that this terrible tragedy took place because of a three cent light bulb burning out. When Flight 401 was making its final approach to Miami, they started to put the landing gear down, but the light that signalled this wasn't working for some reason. Captain Loft send Flight Engineer Repo and another man into the cargo hold of the plane to examine the landing gear. During this time, he put the plane on automatic pilot while they were dealing with this crisis. It is believed that Loft or the co-pilot Burt Stockstill bumped the automatic pilot and turned it off. The plane began a very steep dive into the swamp that they did not detect until it was too late! Far too late! Crash has a very impressive cast, everyone from Eddie Albert as the pilot to Sharon Gless (before she was on Cagney and Lacey) to Adrienne Barbeau to Lorraine Gary. Its like one of those Airport movies they made where they introduce you to the characters, set the scene and then create the disaster and then you get to see who lives and who dies! Considering the fact that this film was made a quarter century ago when special effects weren't what they are today, the part when they re-enact the crash of the plane is very realistic and very chilling. You feel like you are on the plane experiencing the whole damn thing! William Shatner portrays the crash "detective" who tries to solve the mystery. Shatner was never one of my favorites, he has an overwhelming ego that you can see a mile off! I cannot believe he got so far on so little! However, this film has enough positive points to recommend it.

In the seventies Hollywood was took by a wave of disasters movies, mainly focusing aircrafts due the successful AIRPORT in late sixties, however this one is based on real events of the flight 401 from New York to Miami, unfortunately the producers didn't resist to fit in those hideous cliches in the narrative, despite some were real indeed, said that all remains is a sort of documentary-drama concerning on technical issues to find out what really happened that led to crash the first high-tech Jumbo Boeing ever since.

The plot is split in two parts, firstly exposing the crash itself on everglades without many details, then came up the flashbacks on previous three days prior of the fateful flight, where enters William Shatner's character Carl Tobias as security inspector aiming for figures out what were the key reason that triggered the crash, on final sequence he reaches in a fair conclusion, reporting at cabin step by step all occurrences concerning the light bulb, landing gear and automatic pilot and so for, in other hand his superior wants close the case and all mismatches, including the veteran Pilot Captain Dunn (Eddie Albert) had a brain tumor that should be appointed as the main reason, which Tobias disagrees.

As low-budge TV-movie astounds us on the spot area where the many parts of the aircraft scattered all around on everglades, also based on reported facts told by the crew and survivors to enlighten the disaster, this notorious crash also had another version in same year THE GHOST OF FLIGHT 401 lead by Ernest Borgnine, instead it had another approaching.

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First watch: 1985 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-Youtube / Rating: 6.5.

As with the other user comment, Crash follows the real life story of the first crash of a jumbo jet, Eastern Airlines flight 401. Based on the excellent book by Rob and Sara Elder, the film, however, takes liberties with the facts. Most obvious is the William Shatner character, which must have been added as a narrative device but didn't exist in real life. Further, the films conclusion as to what caused the crash is wrong - not following the book nor the NTSB findings.

Flight 401 went down in the Florida Everglades around Christmas of 1972. This movie simply tells that story. In some instances, such as with Sharon Gless and Adrienne Barbeau, who were based on the actual stewardesses, the film works, but in other instances, like George Maharis' bickering romance, it says cliche'. Christopher Connelly and Ron Glass were also based on actual persons. The movie shows incredible events that occurred, such as the two men in the swamp boat who are the first to arrive on the scene and the survival of the baby and the poodle. D.W. Moffat is the first rescuer to appear and hears the survivors singing Christmas carols. Lorraine Gary and Ed Nelson's story, whether or not it is true, I couldn't say, but I doubt it, nontheless is interesting to watch. Eddie Albert and Lane Smith are a bit on the wasted side as far as being the pilots goes. William Shatner adds his Rescue 911 dialogue in a final summary. The movie concludes one of the pilots bumped the wheel and knocked out the automatic pilot, but the myth about the crash is that the flight crew became too absorbed in why the warning light that the landing gear wasn't down was still lit up, until they looked and saw the ground in front of them. Again, according to the movie, the gear was down, the fault was in the lightbulb.

Another movie that came out the same year, Ghost of Flight 401, that starred Ernest Borgnine and Kim Basinger, continues the story about the ghosts of the flight crew seen on other planes that had pieces of the fuselage from Flight 401 used in their assembly. Would be interesting to see these two movies together.

As part of employment training is training with Alaska Airlines in-and-in 2000 or 2001 con than one, they had as watched this film partly due to the fact that they had just lost an aircraft and wanted us to be empathetic with the family members of those affected. The unfortunate result: due to the chilling reality of the scenes, I was unable to view the entire film, costing me the position.

While I was active-duty Air Force stationed overseas in 1983 or '84, there was a crash at a nearby facility that I was tasked with on site support, which, unfortunately, caused PTSD. Viewing this film triggered an episode, albeit quiet, but an episode with it's chilling memories. Even now, 37 or 38 years later, it is difficult to write this.

The characters and jobs they did were well done, as was the cinematography of the scene. So very realistic.