The accident in the film was inspired by a real-life disaster, the crash of Alaska Airlines 261 on January 31, 2000. Some dialogue in the film closely resembles the CVR transcript. Like in the film, the pilots of Alaska 261 rolled the airplane to an inverted position to try to stabilize the flight. Unlike the film, however, this did not assist them in recovering the aircraft. The root cause of the crash was found to be inadequate maintenance of the airplane's stabilizer "jackscrew," which caused its threads to wear down excessively and eventually jam the jackscrew. While the pilots were trying to reach Los Angeles for an emergency landing, the threads were ripped out and the stabilizer moved to a position that forced the plane into its fatal dive.
According to Denzel Washington, American company Delta Air Lines granted the production team access to their official flight simulator, in order to learn some of the most common maneuvers pilots have to master in order to fly a commercial plane.
When Captain Whitaker sits left seat of the cockpit, he offers his co-pilot a breath from the oxygen mask, after breathing himself, claiming it is a test. It is actually a well-known common relief for morning-after hangovers.
While the movie has been criticized for inaccurately portraying pilots and the physics of flying a plane, many alcoholics have stated that it accurately portrays addiction. Some treatment programs use scenes from the movie to help visualize the effects of alcoholism.