its really a pleasure to find you after all those years. i am a flight attendant for an international airline, and since i was a kid, i watched the movie and wondered what ever happened to you.
so what do you do now? are you still flying? what airline do you fly with?

I feel that some of these facts need to be said to set the story straight regarding the outfit that I worked for and the people involved.
Oh, by the way, I have never flown a helicopter, and have never flown under a bridge. Flying as a Navy pilot was exciting enough for me.

1) The date of release of a movie is irrelevant to the date of the action. For example Titanic, released in 1997, depicts an accident that occurred in 1912.

2) The shape of the overhead compartments, windows, window shades, and 2-3-2 abreast seating in economy class depicted in the movie are consistent with a Boeing 767 aircraft, not an A300. Also, the absence of an actual Air New Zealand DC-10 aircraft could have been overcome with the use of stock footage (if available) or repainting a DC-10 aircraft.

5) The shot of the Boeing 737 taking off appears to be stock footage. Why was there no stock footage of an Air New Zealand Boeing 767 taking off? Who knows…

6) and 7) According to the Aviation Safety Network, the DC-10 that crashed on Mt Erebus in 1979 (flight TE901) was registered ZK-NZP: http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19791128-0
However, the DC-10 involved in the real-life rescue mission above the Pacific in 1978 (flight TE103), was ZK-NZS, according to Emergency! Crisis on the Flight Deck. Same aircraft type but different registrations…

8) According to Air New Zealand’s website, the airline was owned by the government of New Zealand until 1989: http://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/company-history . Furthermore, ownership of an airline sometimes has no impact on the color scheme of the aircraft.

11a) According to Emergency! Crisis on the Flight Deck, the first officer on flight TE103 was Arthur Dovey.

13) According to the same source, it is the flight engineer, Gordon Brooks, who sadly died in the crash of TE901 on Mt Erebus, and you are probably correct saying that the character’s name was changed for that reason.

Sorry if you interpreted the tone of the article as being harsh on the filming crew for not accurately depicting the rescue mission. I was just reporting the differences and obvious inaccuracies (such as the NZ flight being a 737 on take-off, a 767 throughout the movie). I am totally aware that movies based on true stories often have no choice but to take liberties because of a budget limitations, legal concerns, or the reasons you mentioned earlier. Thanks again for commenting.

1) The film came out in the 1990′s not the time when it was depicted as this was 1978

2) Air New Zealand had no DC-10′s in service when this film came out & they had been replaced by the Boeing 767-200, Although I Noticed one you didn’t pick up on and that was the cabin Interior from the plane is from a A300-B4 Air Newzealand Never had these in their fleet .

3)The Dc-10 had a seating configuration similar to the Boeing 747 I, should know Because I have flown on an example from United airlines again before they went on to be replaced by the later models of Boeing 767’s & 737’s

4) United Airlines had replaced there earlier 747
-100, 200’s for 747-400′s

5) the discrepancies shown when the Air Newzealand flight took off can be explained by footage of Air other newzealand flights taking off from that runway that’s probably why in some movie footage the Plane depicted changes from a Boeing 737 to a 767 as shown later in flight

6) The Dc-10 that
really took part in the rescue of flight 771 Sadly crashed into Mt Erebus Antarctica in the previous year that being back in 1977 with the loss of all on board so was unviable for the film/movie instead it’s registration was painted on the Boeing 767 there by depicted in the Movie.

7) The actual rescue flight took place in December of 1978 one year later then the Mt Erebus Disaster which killed 237 people; This was & still is New Zealand’s deadliest air disaster A permanent memorial to the victims& their families is situated at Scott Base Antarctica
8) At the time of the incident Air newzealand was owned by TAA (Trans Australian Airways) so would probably have not been in Air Newzealand Colors/ Corporate Livery.

9) The flight number really was flight 103 and not 308 they may have changed this for the film because of the Negative association with Pan Am flight 103 which was a 747 that was tragically destroyed by a terrorist bomb again with the loss of all on board back in 1988 whilst on route to New York from Heathrow which crashed near Lockerbie Scotland.

10) 2 of the people you notice standing at the control tower in Auckland Newzealand where the real Capt. Gordon vette(r.e.t) retired & Capt. Jay Parkins who later after he was rescued went on to fly commercial airliners for a Major US Airline, The pilots you see depicted as Jay & Gordon in the movie where professional stunt Doubles

11) It should be said Please Don’t attempt to recreate this flight as You Probably won’t make it to dry land again, unless you have adequate fuel on board your plane, Crop dusters where not or designed to meant to fly long-haul distances where as Airliners are it was a miracle Capt Jay made it that far with the Fuel he had on that fateful day & that at the time he made his distress call a Air Newzealand Flight was in the area and was able to divert to help guide him to a safe landing at Auckland Airport.

12) Because at the time no Air Newzealand pilots were on hand to be filmed in the cockpit of the aircraft was obviously filmed in the comfort of a full motion flight simulator
11) The first officer in the real rescue flight was named Greg cassin not Ross Mann as depicted in the movie Tragically 1st officer Greg Cassin was killed in the Mt Erebus air disaster.

13) So obviously as a matter of respect to his family his name was changed for the movie to Ross Mann (who was a fictitious Character based on him) played by the actor Michael Bishop the main roll of (Capt Gordon Vette) was played by well known actor Robert Loggia.

14) Whilst Tragically 1st officer Greg Cassin was allocated on that day as the 1st officer of flight TE901, Fortunately Capt Gordon Vette was not allocated that day as the captain of that flight & so survived to write the book on the disaster called “Impact Erebus”