Goofs

The two charges of plastic explosives vaporize Carson and create a large fireball. The plane's front end fell off, but didn't seem to have been damaged by the explosion.

After Kyle is knocked down by the Arab, she has a small gash on her cheek. When she's asking the stewardess later what part of the plane she searched, there is no sign of any injury. The gash resurfaces later.

The length of Sean Bean's hair changes It is shorter in the interior airplane shots (flight deck, passenger cabin) and longer in the shots on the ground and in the terminal.

Kyle has been running, climbing, fighting, sleeping, and sweating for hours. Yet her hair is clean, fluffy, and flipped up on the ends when she finds Julia.

A short while after the oxygen masks come down only a few masks are still hanging. The masks are gone and the trap doors they came out of are back up and closed.

The avionics computers shown in the film appear to be an array of Cray supercomputers in the circular configuration typically seen in a supercomputer lab. In reality, avionics computers are small, ruggedized embedded systems which are distributed throughout the plane. Avionics computing requires highly reliable redundant systems, not massive computing power.

Over the course of the movie, Kyle's search for her daughter takes us further and further into the various compartments and holds of the aircraft, eventually taking us into areas far beneath flight deck. The problem here is with the layout of the bowels of the aircraft. As shown, this airliner's computer room is large and cavernous, with much empty and unused space. In reality, virtually every square inch of any passenger liner has a purpose, and with the exception of passenger and crew areas, every other part of an airliner is unbelievably cramped, filled with cargo, electronics, hydraulics, or emergency equipment. Such a waste of space, as depicted in this film, simply wouldn't exist.

When the airplane is shown being "de-iced" before takeoff, it is obvious that the trucks are simply spraying soapy water all over the airplane. Real de-icing/anti-icing fluid is applied only to the wing and tail surfaces, and would not be wasted on the passenger windows. Furthermore, real de-icing/anti-icing fluid (treated propylene glycol) is pinkish, gooey, and very expensive.

The production designers did a rather poor job with the design of the fictional airplane. Besides the large amounts of unproductive empty space already noted, and the mismatch between number of engines and cockpit instrumentation, there are several other glaring mistakes. First, the aircraft fuselage structure is depicted as a tubular metallic design like buildings on the ground, when in fact all modern commercial aircraft use monocoque structure where the skin is the main strength element. Second, the heroine messed with an open panel consisting of many switchboard-like cables terminated with phone jacks like an old telephone system; no aircraft would use anything like this in the general or specific sense. Third, cabin lighting is shown being on the wall shining into passengers' eyes, instead of overhead.

As the plane is speeding down the runway in Berlin, Kyle is seen buckling her seat belt and a flight attendant is walking down the aisle. Air travel regulations require that seat belts be fastened before aircraft taxiing. Flight crews are supposed to be seated and buckled in as well.

A shot of the cockpit shows 2 sets of engine instruments. When the aircraft is shown, it has 4 engines.

When the oxygen masks are hanging, the camera jostles to convey turbulence but the hanging oxygen masks hang stationary and don't move.

The oxygen masks dangling behind Carson when he is talking with Kyle do not move when the airplane experiences turbulence. It is obvious that the filmmakers "jiggled" only the camera and not the set.

When you see the shot of the landing gear touching down on the runway on landing, notice the aircraft does not flare. (Flaring an aircraft means to bring the nose up on landing so that the main landing gear touches down first, then the nose gear. If a plane lands as shown in the movie, there is a risk of the landing gear collapsing, causing the aircraft to crash.)

At one point Kyle is in the galley with most of the plane's crew (at least all the ones we've been introduced to) and its captain. The camera takes a rotating view of Kyle and at the end of its rotation on the left-hand side, the smallest bit of "untreated" green screen is visible.

The space between the windows appears to be much larger from the outside than from the inside of the plane. Compare the image from outside of the plane of Kyle and Julia watching the casket ready to be boarded to the interior shots of the space between the seats and windows.

The plane is noticeably empty in many early scenes.

At 29:18 as Jodie Foster is running through the plane, an extra calls out "Hey, Jodie Foster!"

During the more dramatic scenes, the sound effect of a screaming baby is very clearly heard. However, not a single baby can be seen in any of the passenger scenes throughout the movie.

When the French person on the screen is finished speaking, she remains there even though another language is playing.

The plane is diverted to Goose Bay, New Foundland, Canada. As already noted, the FBI would have no presence in Canada. It would make more sense for the plane to have been diverted to Bangor, Maine -- the closest airport in the U.S. to Europe.

In the exterior shot at the airport you can clearly see that the "Leipzig/Halle Airport" signs at the jet bridge are pasted over because the adhesive foil color does not match exactly the color of the jet bridge.

At Berlin "Alexanderplatz" station Kyle and her husband enter the subway line U5 driving to the eastern suburb of Hönow. When they leave the train it is the subway line U6 at "Platz der Luftbrücke" in the southern district of Tempelhof, which is in the opposite direction. There is no direct connection between both lines.

Carson claims he was able to smuggle the explosives on board because "the caskets aren't x-rayed". They in fact are, just like any other cargo or luggage transported by air, and any suspicious, particularly metal objects inside of them would have been immediately spotted by the airport security.

There is no way that Kyle would have been able to cause as much disruption and ruckus to the point she did. She would have been immediately restrained much sooner, which would have likely foiled the villain's plot as they needed to have her open her husband's casket in the hold.

No way would someone be considered a criminal without any evidence just because the claim is made by an Air Marshal. In fact, it would make the Marshal look incompetent and in bad faith. Nor would any ransom requests be accepted without negotiating with the criminal or at the very least a background record.

As the plane is speeding down the runway in Berlin, Kyle is seen buckling her seat belt and a flight attendant is walking down the aisle. Air travel regulations require that seat belts be fastened before aircraft taxiing. Flight crews are supposed to be seated and buckled in as well.

The PA at the airport in Berlin welcomes the passengers to "Berlin International airport". However, Berlin does not have one, but two international airports, Tegel and Schönefeld (and at the time of the movie, also Tempelhof), so the PA would have specified which one.

When the airplane is about to land, some passengers stand up. A father takes his camera and says to his son, "Sit back," and takes a picture with flash, however if you use flash in front of the glass the light will be reflected and the picture will be no more than the flash of light.