Final Descent (Movie review)

Capt. Glen "Lucky" Singer (Robert Urich) and F/O Connie Phipps (Annette O'Toole)

If you are a fan of air disaster movies like me, you probably notice some are good, some are goofy. Here is a deep analysis of a nice air disaster movie depicting a mid-air collision between a small prop plane and a heavy airliner. This made-for-TV movie was first broadcast as a World Premiere Movie on CBS in October 1997. The story is inspired from the novel The Glass Cockpit by Robert P. Davis.

Plot summary

It’s a sunny day in Seattle. Captain Glen “Lucky” Singer (the late Robert Urich) and his girlfriend Connie Phipps (Annette O’Toole) prepare for a routine flight on Quest Airlines to Dallas on a brand-new aircraft: the Gallant 270, almost entirely computerized. On board is also a flight inspector, Captain George Bouchard (John DeLancie).

About 220 passengers are on board Quest 19. Of course, as usual, the passengers are a little “unique”: a pregnant woman with her husband in First Class, a suspicious businessman, also in First Class, and on coach, a woman travelling with a music band, a trio of construction workers, a divorced woman travelling alone, sitting next to a disabled arrogant veteran.

Another plane also prepares for departure. But this is a small Cessna-style plane, carrying a businessman with no consideration of risk. As both planes are scheduled to depart at the same time, the confusion starts, as the pilot of the small prop plane takes off from the wrong runway. Seconds after, Quest 19 is cleared for takeoff at a runway parallel to the runway from where the prop plane took off.

When Quest 19 is airborne, the near-miss alarm sounds in the ATC control room. The ATC controller in charge quickly tries to divert the planes from their course. Quest 19 answers quickly, by making a very rapid right turn. However, the prop plane, already making the error of taking off from the wrong runway, is a little late on turning.

He soon sees the Gallant 270 approaching right towards him, with the nice “QUEST” logotype, on futuristic letters. Confused, screaming, he can’t do anything. The wing of the prop plane collides with the stabilizer. The plane pivots quickly, dropping, as usual, the carry-ons stowed in the overhead storage compartments, shaking the passenger cabin, with the passengers screaming and… the two flight attendants sitting at the back quickly covered with the pasta primavera that was to be served to the passengers later, as the food compartments suddenly open by themselves.

ATC Screen showing QST19 and N9748C about to collide

The prop plane explodes on impact, but Quest 19 is still flying, however as crippled as the arrogant veteran I was talking about before. The elevators are jammed in the up position and the plane can only climb. A solution must be found to bring the nose down before the plane climbs to an altitude where the turbines will explode and the plane will vaporize.

I won’t tell you the rest of the movie. It is too interesting! Let me tell you the solutions to bring the nose down are very original, but anyway brilliant.

Appreciation

All the steps of the flight are examined very carefully. The producers aimed mainly the reactions of everybody. The actors seem very serious, no obvious overacting. The visual effects are the best I have seen in this kind of movie, even though it is obvious they used computer-assisted images for that. I mainly liked the fact that we finally get to see a woman in the cockpit. Too bad the mid-air collision plot is a little phony in the moment. This is the only flaw I detect in the movie.

I give this movie 9 out of 10.
It is excellent for a made-for-TV air disaster movie. A must-see!

Things to notice

Final Descent is overall a technically accurate movie. However the following inaccuracies in continuity have been found.

• There are no runways 9L-27R or 9R-27L at Seattle (instead, it’s 16L-34R or 16R-34L). That’s in Vancouver, where the movie was filmed.
• When the helicopter shoots guns at the tail of the plane, a close-up shows the holes passing through the wrong side.
• When the decompression occurs, the point of decompression is forward, but the objects are blown backwards.
• The emergency vehicles read “Dulles Municipal Airport”, even though the airport is Seattle.

You may be interested to know that…

Duke (Jim Byrnes)

• The livery of Quest Airlines is identical to the [now old] Canadian Airlines colors, except for the arrow logotype replaced by a stylish “Q”.
• The logotype of the airline, “Q”, could be a subtle reference to John DeLancie’s role of “Q” in the Star Trek series.
• The name of Gallant Aviation, the fictitious company that builds the Gallant 270 (and other planes like the 260 and 280), was probably inspired by producer Michael O. Gallant.
• The cockpit of the Gallant 270 is almost a replica of the Boeing 777′s.
• The passenger cabin and the overall exterior design are unique, but because of the distinct shape of the nose, it appears to be inspired by the Airbus A321 aircraft and not by the Boeing 757.
• The registration N9748C has been used in many movies and TV series up to now, such as Dallas, the made-for-TV movie Free Fall and the TV series Peter Benchley’s Amazon. It is a “reserved fictitious tail number” by the Public Affairs office of the FAA.

The planes

Quest 19 is a passenger Gallant 270 (fictitious plane model), flying on a SEA-DFW route (Seattle Sea-Tac – Dallas Fort Worth). N9748C is a private prop plane (probably a Twin Cessna, I’m not sure).

Movie links

• IMDb – Final Descent
  Cast, plot summary, goofs, quotes from the world’s largest movie database.

Specifications

U.S.A. 1997. Produced by Mandalay Television and Columbia TriStar. Directed by Mike Robe. Starring Robert Urich, Annette O’Toole, John DeLancie, Gwynyth Walsh, Jim Byrnes, Kevin McNulty, Ken Pogue. Rated PG. Also known as Choc en plein ciel (French), Aircrash – Katastrophe beim Take Off (German).

This movie is based on the book The Glass Cockpit. Please read the sub-article comparing the movie and the book.