Crash (TV 1978)

True story recounting the crash of Eastern Airlines flight 401, which crashed in the Everglades while on approach to Miami in December 1972. Accurate in many respects, the movie goes ... See full summary »

Director:

Barry Shear

Writers:

Rob Elder (book), Sarah Elder (book),

Stars:

William Shatner, Adrienne Barbeau, Brooke Bundy

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
William Shatner	...	Carl Tobias
Adrienne Barbeau	...	Veronica Daniels
Brooke Bundy	...	Camille Lawrence
Christopher Connelly	...	Mike Tagliarino
Lorraine Gary	...	Emily Mulwray
Ron Glass	...	Jerry Grant
Sharon Gless	...	Lesley Fuller
Joyce Jameson	...	Sophie Cross
George Maharis	...	Evan Walsh
Ed Nelson	...	Philip Mulwray
Gerald S. O'Loughlin	...	Larry Cross
Artie Shaw	...	Elderly Passenger
Joe Silver	...	Alvin Jessop
Laraine Stephens	...	Ginny Duffy
W.K. Stratton	...	Ray Ordway

Storyline

True story recounting the crash of Eastern Airlines flight 401, which crashed in the Everglades while on approach to Miami in December 1972. Accurate in many respects, the movie goes through the events leading up to the crash, the crash itself, and the rescue effort afterwards.

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Plot Keywords:

everglades | airplane accident | based on true story

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 October 1978 (USA)

Also Known As:

Crash of Flight 401

Filming Locations:

Florida, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Charles Fries Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min 120 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

'Bob Crane' - actor from Hogan's Heroes - was originally cast in this movie, but was murdered before filming commenced.

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Goofs

About 24 minutes into the film, there is a shot of the Lockheed-1011 at the airport terminal. However, what is shown is not an L-1011 jumbo but a Boeing 727, a medium size commercial jetliner.

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Connections

Followed by The Ghost of Flight 401 (1978)

User Reviews

Decent documentary style telling of the Crash of Flight 401

Flight 401 went down in the Florida Everglades around Christmas of 1972. This movie simply tells that story. In some instances, such as with Sharon Gless and Adrienne Barbeau, who were based on the actual stewardesses, the film works, but in other instances, like George Maharis' bickering romance, it says cliche'. Christopher Connelly and Ron Glass were also based on actual persons. The movie shows incredible events that occurred, such as the two men in the swamp boat who are the first to arrive on the scene and the survival of the baby and the poodle. D.W. Moffat is the first rescuer to appear and hears the survivors singing Christmas carols. Lorraine Gary and Ed Nelson's story, whether or not it is true, I couldn't say, but I doubt it, nontheless is interesting to watch. Eddie Albert and Lane Smith are a bit on the wasted side as far as being the pilots goes. William Shatner adds his Rescue 911 dialogue in a final summary. The movie concludes one of the pilots bumped the wheel and knocked out the automatic pilot, but the myth about the crash is that the flight crew became too absorbed in why the warning light that the landing gear wasn't down was still lit up, until they looked and saw the ground in front of them. Again, according to the movie, the gear was down, the fault was in the lightbulb.

Another movie that came out the same year, Ghost of Flight 401, that starred Ernest Borgnine and Kim Basinger, continues the story about the ghosts of the flight crew seen on other planes that had pieces of the fuselage from Flight 401 used in their assembly. Would be interesting to see these two movies together.