troitsky

"Wingspan" is a highly intense aviation drama. A propjet passenger liner is on its night flight over cold Siberia. Suddenly the crew gets a fire alarm for the two starboard engines and they shut them down. With two engines lost and in harsh weather conditions the chances are slim...

The movie is quite well done. The cockpit episodes are highly realistic and technically correct. The most impressive scene is perhaps how the passengers wake up one by one and see the starboard propellers not spinning and how panic slowly spreads. The work of the air traffic controllers and other ground stuff is also shown very vividly. Briefly, it's a really good aviation drama, alas, completely forgotten. I'd rate it on par with Airport and just below Air Crew.

The list of known mistakes in this movie is impressive. There are two more episodes in it that are just stupid. First, the crew sings the USSR National Anthem underwater. It's absolutely incredible since the general rule on submarines is "keep silent" (to lower noise). Singing out loud is absolutely out of question. Second, Sean Connery has a rather big beard. Again, it's not suitable for a submariner: with such a beard one would have difficulty putting on a respirator or a scuba mask in emergency. Actually it's the only modern submarine movie with a bearded officer on board. I've read the novel (it was published in Russian pretty soon after its release) but I can't remember if these two mistakes are in Clancy's book as well.