Movie Comments: "Flight"

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Kathleen and I both saw "Flight" yesterday evening and both enjoyed it. It is a movie for adults only. It is the story of a flawed pilot that makes a spectacular landing of an aircraft with a mechanical failure.

I do not wish to do a review because to do so would give away some plot points. I will answer some questions about the weather and the accident as they are portrayed in the move.

The weather incident occurs early in the movie and it is based around the crash of Southern Airways Flight 242 which crashed during an emergency landing at New Hope, GA on April 4, 1977, after flying through a severe thunderstorm. During that accident they "went across a black area" (on radar) trying to escape the storm. The ingestion of hail destroyed the engines and they had to attempt to glide to a landing on a highway. They were only partially successful.

The other accident was Alaska Airlines Flight 261 which crashed off the coast of California when a jackscrew failed locking one of the aircraft's flight control surfaces. The crew attempted to regain stability by flying the aircraft while "inverted." They did not succeed.

Not going to give away any more. If you decide to see the movie, look up the two accidents at the links and you will be able to see how they wove that information into the plot.

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