- Factual errors: Members of the Soviet/Russian Army are prohibited to have a beard by military regulations.
- Factual errors: Members of the Russian Army only salute with a hand when wearing hats.
- Factual errors: The in-flight refueling hardware on the real Air Force One makes a bulge visible below the cockpit window. The Boeing 747 used in the film lacks this bulge. There are numerous other differences between the plane depicted in the movie and the real Air Force One. See also the trivia entry.
- Continuity: Disappearing/reappearing bullet holes in the hostage room.
- Continuity: When President Marshall fights with the terrorist in the room with the football game on TV, the stool is lying down, then it is standing up, then it is lying down again.
- Continuity: Papers in President Marshall's hand in the conference room.
- Revealing mistakes: One of the MIG pilots makes a sound of surprise just before a missile hits the plane yet they would have been warned by their instrument systems that a lock-on had occurred and that missiles were on their way.
- Factual errors: Jumping out of a plane at 200 knots and immediately opening a parachute of the kind in the movie is probably going to break the sail, yet only clean openings are shown.
- Revealing mistakes: President Marshall says in Russian: "He's dead, help," to fool one of Russian hijackers. His accent is terrible and would never fool a Russian speaker.
- Revealing mistakes: When Marshall and Korshunov are fighting, Korshunov presses Marshall's face against a panel of buttons which are obviously fake.
- Factual errors: The base at which the pilots attempt to land after the hijacking is identified as "Ramstein Air Force Base". The actual name is "Ramstein Air Base"; "Air Force Base" is only used for installations in the United States.
- Errors in geography: The F-15s launched from Ramstein, Germany have "EG" tail markings, which means they are from Eglin Air Force Base, Florida. Aircraft assigned to Ramstein have tail markings "RS." Also, Ramstein does not have fighter aircraft. The nearest US fighter bases in Europe are in Spangdahlem, Germany; Aviano, Italy; or Incirlik, Turkey.
- Continuity: In the opening sequence, the dot from a laser sight rests on the back of the sentry's head, and the descending shooter is above the sentry, yet, when the shot comes, the explosion is neither back out of the rear of the head, nor out the front of the head, but rather straight up.
- Continuity: Jürgen Prochnow plays General Ivan Radek, yet he is credited as "General Alexander Radek".
- Audio/visual unsynchronized: When Col. Carlton is telling Marshal how bad the damage is, his mouth under the mask is still moving after he has finished speaking.
- Factual errors: The Air Force One pilot on the ground says that there is no automatic landing capability on the aircraft. All 747s have the capability to land on auto pilot. Later model 747s and every 757, 767 and 777 also has semi-auto takeoff.
- Revealing mistakes: The same sound effect is used twice within about 10 seconds of each other. As the plane is first landing at Ramstein, there is a quick shot of the passengers falling all over the conference room, and you can hear a mans voice saying "Ahhh... Geez!" A few seconds later, as the plane is heading at the control tower and before the wing slices the tree, the exact same voice is heard saying the exact same thing, but this time it is supposed to be coming from the control tower.
- Continuity: The handguard of the H&K MP5A3 that the president has, changes from the old slim type to the new wide type after the scene when the terrorists are shooting through the toilet doors.
- Errors in geography: Both the Russian and the American presidents speak Polish instead of Russian as do some of the Russian kidnappers.
- Continuity: When the terrorist fires at the toilets, the bullet spray on the back wall of the second toilet (that he opens) is different from the spray on the door.
- Audio/visual unsynchronized: Lip synching doesn't match when the Air Force "PJ" (pararescue jumper in the back of the C-130) talks into his helmet microphone, saying "Liberty 24 is changing call signs, Liberty 24 is now Air Force One."
- Factual errors: By design, the external doors on modern jet aircraft cannot be opened during flight. Though the low altitude of the film's dramatic final rescue scene might permit opening the door (as the pressure differential holds it shut during flight), it still would not open outward as portrayed in the film and would instead need to be opened inward and swung out through the doorframe.
- Factual errors: As the aircraft swerves about the aerodrome and goes to take-off again the terrorists do nothing about the flaps (set at 40 degrees for landing). The increased drag caused by the flaps at this setting wouldn't allow the aircraft to take off at all, let alone take off in such a short distance.
- Factual errors: When Air Force One is told to change the heading to take it out of Kazakhstan, they are told to turn the dial counterclockwise from 110 to 290, through 360. This would turn the aircraft left (as in the film), but the display takes it through 200, which would turn the aircraft right.
- Revealing mistakes: The Air Force One's crash into the Caspian Sea was created using CGI. The CGI splashes seem to have the horizon visible through them.
- Continuity: The film only shows and implies that three PJs are transferred to Air Force One, yet the First Lady, daughter and 'Shep' are taken by a PJ each to the C-130 and one is shot by Gibbs.
- Factual errors: After retaking the plane, the President asks the Major if he knows how to fly and the Major indicates no, despite wearing command pilot wings on his uniform blouse. He would have to be a highly experienced aviator to qualify to wear those.
- Factual errors: During the refueling scene when AF1 breaks away fuel is seen spraying out of the boom of the KC-10. The fuel ignites and the flame travels up the boom and blows up the KC-10. Onboard the KC-10 there is a Boom Operator who monitors and has full control of the fuel that the tanker is receiving or giving at all times and also flies the boom. The Boom Operator would have raised the boom as soon as AF1 broke away and cut off the fuel supply long before the fuel could ignite.
- Revealing mistakes: When the President is hanging on the rope behind the MC-130, the aircraft's wing is visible through the President.
- Factual errors: Asking a person with no parachute experience to jump in these conditions might be more dangerous than staying on the plane. If the canopy does not rip apart (as someone already noted), they are jumping at night with only moonlight into unfamiliar terrain that might have wires, rocks, trees, water, fences, as well as the ground itself that they do not know how to land on even in bright sunshine.
- Continuity: When President Marshall tries to enter the conference room with the keys he got from one of the terrorists, he gets shot and there are bullet holes on the door. But somehow these bullet holes are missing in the next conference room scene when Gary Oldman comes to threaten and shoot the National Security Adviser.
- Continuity: When they are in the war room talking waiting on the news that the President wasn't in the war room, the camera is panning to the left. Before the camera passed by the Defense Secretary there is a general talking to someone in the background as the camera passed to the left of the Defense Secretary the stand in that was talking to the general mysteriously disappears. They apparently stopped filming during that time and forgot to put the stand in back in place.
- Continuity: When the hijackers are trying to get into the cockpit, Ivan puts C4 explosive on the keypad, then shoots at it and misses. He then puts C4 on the (now cleaned-off) keypad again, shoots at it, and successfully blows the door. The first glob of C4 disappeared. And, why show Ivan failing to blow the door? Why not just show him successfully blowing the door?
- Factual errors: When the President opens the panel to short the wires to dump fuel, the wires are all different colors. All aircraft use white wires with printed numbers and letters to identify the circuit.
- Revealing mistakes: Bullets fired by the President rip through the Kevlar vests with ease. This could be because they are firing armor-piercing rounds.
- Incorrectly regarded as goofs: None of the planes used as the real Air Force One have an escape pod. President Bill Clinton is said to have remarked on this detail half-jokingly after seeing the film at a White House screening. However, this obviously was a case of artistic license since the pod was used by the filmmakers to make a key plot twist.
- Factual errors: C4 cannot be detonated by shooting it, as it is a relatively stable explosive. The terrorists would have had to use detonating cords or a blasting cap in order to blow open the cockpit door.
>>> WARNING: Here Be Spoilers <<<
Goofs below here contain information that may give away important plot points. You may not want to read any further if you've not already seen this title.
- Continuity: SPOILER: When Agent Gibbs shoots Major Caldwell, blood splashes on Gibbs's face and forehead. In the next shot when he struggles with the President, there is blood only on his right cheek and his forehead is clean.
- Plot holes: SPOILER: The President of the United States has no authority over the President of Russia on a matter involving the conditions of a Russian prisoner in a Russian jail. The Russian President was doing the American President a personal favor by releasing Radek. Even if the 25th Amendment had been enacted and the Vice President became the Acting President, she would be in no position to overrule the President and order the Russian President not to release Radek, as he has no reason to obey her. While the Russian President could of course respect the new President's wishes, this would have nothing to do with her status under the 25th Amendment, which is what the film wrongly implies.
- Plot holes: SPOILER: The C-130 was originally designated a "strike package". As such, it would have no need to be equipped with "parajumper" harnesses, or a winch with a long rope.
- Factual errors: SPOILER: During the first "parajumper" transfer, someone can be heard giving directions to AF1. But as the disabled aircraft, it would have been struggling just to maintain course, altitude, and speed. Any corrections would have been made by the C-130.
- Incorrectly regarded as goofs: SPOILER: The name "parajumper" suggests that there is a parachute involved. Apparently, if this is the case, then why couldn't they bring parachutes over to Air Force One? It's because by the time the C-130 had reached Air Force One, the latter was already flying over the Caspian Sea. Air Force One couldn't go over land, either; it was clearly going to crash eventually, so flying it over land would have put many lives at risk.
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