Goofs

All through the movie Grant is wearing glasses that aren't just for reading. They get knocked off towards the end of the movie yet he is still able to see clearly with no signs of struggle. He is even able to fly the plane to a landing with no vision problems.

The lights surrounding the runway at Dulles change.

The sunset light on the plane is not consistent.

When Cahill opens the first hatch on the F-117 Nighthawk and looks up, a green indicator is shown that the pressure is "Equalized". When he climbs to the second hatch, a red indicator is shown that the pressure is "Unsafe".

Just after Cahill starts working on the bomb, we see a shot of Rat scooting along the wires at the top of the plane. As he comes straight at the camera, he's only wearing a microphone. The next profile shot shows the mic in a different position, but when Rat gets to the end of the cable to dismount, he's suddenly wearing a full military-spec night vision camera setup on a headmount, and the mic has switched sides.

Armed federal air marshals aren't listed as such on passenger manifests, since their modus operandi (and the extent to which they are used on commercial airplanes) is classified.

The computer for the fake bomb trigger has a hard disk drive with the internal disks and read/write heads exposed. This would never be the case since any dust or dirt that contacted the mechanism would cause the hard drive to crash and fail.

Besides that fact that there aren't such big, empty spaces on a 747-200 or any similar aircraft (all available room is used for equipment, wiring etc.), in the space above the cabin there are various 15-inch speakers mounted to the ceiling. Such a big speaker is used for bass reproduction, where in reality much smaller full-range speakers are installed for announcements and background music.

The Special Forces soldiers Uniforms have the Special Forces patch and the Airborne tab. Special Forces soldiers would not wear these identifying patches into the field.

Infrared beams are invisible, even in a haze. And they are invisible, despite using infrared goggles, without haze. So Cahill would need both, the goggles and the air spray.

During the scene when the team is inspecting the bomb and have to choose someone to defuse it, the Captain tells them to hurry up because 'the morphine is kicking in'. The morphine was administered at least ten minutes beforehand, and morphine generally kicks in almost immediately since it is administered intravenously.

Morphine can also be administered orally, intramuscularly or intradermally; it is not shown how the morphine was administered but it was more likely intramuscularly: easier and faster than intravenous, more effective and faster than orally or intradermally, and very safe. Intramuscular injections "kick in" usually after 10 to 15 minutes.

After the team boards the plane, the crisis team on the ground receives intelligence from the Israelis that the creator of the bomb that is on the plane is Jean-Paul Demou. Despite the team not having any contact with the crisis team, Louis announces that Grant "has Demou" when Grant begins the assault on the plane. There is no way that anyone on the team could have known that the sleeper's name was Demou.

It has been claimed that a barometric trigger would not work, because the trigger was in the pressurized section of the hold. The pressure inside an aircraft's cabin does decrease as the plane increases in altitude, although at a slower rate than the pressure outside the plane decreases.

When Dr. Grant lands at Fredrick Airport the first time in the Cessna, all the other planes are parked in the parking area where they should be. But, when he lands the 747, all the planes have been lined up along the runway in "No Parking" areas. The 747 would not have hit those planes if the planes had been in the parking areas.

The needle in the multimeter connected to the bomb doesn't match its reflection in the mirror. Moreover, after installation of the first bypass, a major point is that the needle shows the same voltage as before the installation, while in the next shot it's down to zero.

Through most of the movie Dr. Grant is wearing a tuxedo or some form of it. When entering the passenger cabin is wearing a blue hoodie over his tuxedo shirt and his hair is brushed back to blend in with passengers. On the ground at the end of the movie his hair is has the original look. It is unrealistic for Dr. Grant upon going through all he did with landing the plane to go back and find his tux, put it back on and fix his hair.

The script calls for assistance from the Eisenhower battle group. USS Dwight D. Eisenhower is CVN-69. The scenes from the carrier were actually filmed on the USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74). The 74 hull number is clearly visible in the film. The Eisenhower was in the yards at Newport News during the time of filming.

At the beginning of the movie, we see Grant landing his Bonanza on Runway 26. At the end, he tries to land the 747 on the same Runway 26. However, as the plane runs off the far end of the runway, we see the opposite direction is marked 7. A real Runway 26 would be Runway 8 in the other direction, not 7.

At the end of the movie, the final end title reads "Critical Decision", not "Executive Decision".

When the terrorist blows the door lock to the cockpit the passengers scream, but when he is in the cockpit instructing the pilots there is no background noise. No one is screaming or crying in fear. It's as if nothing happened.

In one scene, the terrorist leader, Nagi Hasan, is conducting a prayer; however, he doesn't finish the prayer owing to call from one of his subordinates. If Nagi Hasan had indeed been a devout Muslim, he would have finished the prayer no matter what the disturbance, as it is prohibited not to finish a prayer in Muslim law irrespective of the reason.

At the very beginning of the movie, the text states: "May 17, 1995. 15 miles outside Trieste, Italy. 0500 Zulu".

They would not be coming in under cover of darkness in this case, as 0500 Zulu would be 0700 in Trieste Italy, which is well after sunrise on that date.

When Sen. Mavros is brought into the cockpit to talk to the SecDef he asks to speak to the President. When he does so there's the sound of a gun being cocked i.e. pulling back the hammer. Seconds later the gun comes into view and it's a semi-auto Glock which has an internal hammer and makes a distinctly different sound when the slide is pulled back to cock it.

Shortly after the pilot discovers the American soldiers, he goes back to the cockpit. A section of blue screen can briefly be seen at one point.

A fraction of a second after the window is shot out, there is a bright flash outside it for no reason.

Andrews Air Force Base is not surrounded by high mountains and palm trees.

In some shots the sunset light on the plane is coming directly from its right, which is impossible on a westward flight in the northern mid-latitudes.

Early in the movie, Kurt Russell's character is landing a plane. The camera pans by a sign that says "Fredericks Field, VA" and includes a 703 area code. However, the titles on the screen say "Frederick Field, Maryland". Neither is likely, as there are mountains and palm trees visible during the landing sequence.

During the flight training scenes, he is supposed to be at a small airport in Frederick, Maryland. However, palm trees are visible in the background.

The hijacking begins soon after the Fasten Seat Belts sign is turned off after takeoff. The flying time to Washington is about 8 hours. (This is confirmed by dialogue a little later.) Yet not only during the hijacking but at every time we see the plane's exterior from then until just before reaching the US coast, the sky shows that it's still sunset. The time for a sunset to progress from Athens to Washington is about 6.5 hours; only a supersonic plane could keep up with it.

Nagi's hand-drawn target map shows no ground features but rivers, is labeled in Arabic, and is only for his own use, yet for no reason it also shows "WASHINGTON, D.C." in English... enabling Jean to understand its significance.

When the Remora is lost, there are still 2 members of Travis' team on board, along with the pilot. It does not occur to any of them to close the door at the bottom of the docking sleeve, which would have saved the aircraft from decompressing while still allowing Travis to seal the 747's hatch.

The stealth jet pilot ejected from the aircraft but nothing is heard from him ever again. Was his radio chatter not connected to the radar plane? They couldn't pick up on his ejection and send a rescue party? Or the pilot had no radio to report the situation? He would've been able to tell command that some of the men made it on board.

When Grant discovers the pilots dead, he fails to do the one sensible thing he should have done, namely find out whether there are any trained pilots on board. Several of his crew are still functioning; what about Cahill, who designs planes? Instead, Grant acts for the rest of the film as if he's the only person on board with any chance of landing the plane, without any way of knowing that. Everyone else just stays put while they abort one landing, and get bounced around through another, which makes no sense.

After the in flight transfer when they are discussing what to do, one says the F-117 was lost. They had no communication equipment and had no way to know the plane was lost.

Dr. Grant lowers the landing gear of the Beechcraft Bonanza, and confirms it is down and locked. The nose wheel is still extending and moving into its final position when he says this. It cannot yet be down and locked as stated.

David Grant is taking flying lessons in the beginning of the movie in a complex, high-performance aircraft (meaning that it has retractable landing gear, a 200+ horsepower engine with a turbocharger, and in this case a constant-speed propeller). This is not the type of aircraft a student pilot would be learning in - typically student pilots fly in fixed-gear aircraft with simple carbureted engines of less than 200 horsepower without a turbocharger.

Nagi's #2 wants him to divert the plane to Algeria. At this point in the movie the 747 is over the North Atlantic, fairly close to the US Eastern seaboard. Then, not long after, the pilots state the plane is low on fuel and they request an emergency landing. It is thus highly unlikely that the plane would have carried enough fuel earlier to fly all the way back across the Atlantic to Algeria.

During Dr. Grant's pre-solo flight, he asks his instructor "what have I forgotten?" as they approach to land. The instructor tells him, "just fly the airplane," but does not remind him to do the GUMPS pre-landing check (which most flight students memorize long before solo) - Gas, Undercarriage, Mixture, Prop, Seatbelts.

When the Special Forces team is setting up the cameras and Grant is plotting the locations of the terrorists on the computer, the first terrorist (in 1st Class) is labeled as carrying a Skorpion machine-pistol (9mm). When we see him chatting with a second terrorist, he is carrying a AK47 or AKM assault rifle (7.62mm).