Goofs

When the flight approaches New York in the Jurassic period, the pilot is able to identify specific New York City landmarks (Manhattan Island, the East River, the Hudson River, and Staten Island), yet millions of years ago, Manhattan Island had not yet broken away from North America. The continents shifted and reformed several times between the Jurassic and Quaternary (modern) periods. Sea levels also rose and receded numerous times. It would be impossible to identify any modern landforms from the air millions of years ago, because they looked completely different.

The views seen from the plane do not match the altitude it is flying. The view of the dinosaur is from only a few hundred feet up, which would only be when the plane is landing. This view is also shown with a very slow ground speed, not the 470 knots the plane is traveling. The view of the city is from a few thousand feet up, as is the fair. These are realistic but don't match the story. Yet each time the plane is shown, it is above the clouds so they would be several thousand or tens of thousands of feet up.

The interior shots of the cabin, along with the external shots of the cockpit, clearly are not of a 707. 707s had oval windows, not square ones. Square windows were the cause of the losses of several de Havilland Comets in the '50s which allowed the Boeing 707 to become the dominant aircraft of the period.

The crew discuss the shock they feel as possibly breaking the sound barrier. As the speed of sound in normal air is about 661 knots at sea level and about 573 knots at their altitude, they have not broken the sound barrier as the speed of sound is through a medium and not a fixed linear measurement. As the air around them is moving, they are only moving 470 kt in reference to the surrounding air (true air speed), well below the speed of sound.

When the plane is making its first descent, the radio operator's headphones are lowered to his neck, then over his head and ears, and finally back across his neck.

Three of the five cockpit crew have airline seats with seat belts. The other two only have wooden desk chairs. I don't believe that was standard equipment on a four engine jet.

The cockpit has a rear wall in the front shots but has obviously been removed from the shots from the rear.

The tower controller in 1939 identifies the airport the flight is headed to as LaGuardia. Though this airport was dedicated that year, it was called New York Municipal Airport until the following year, when the CAA adopted New York Municipal Airport-LaGuardia Field. Officially shortened to LaGuardia Airport in 1953.

An airline pilot experiencing extra velocity on a westbound trip (London to NY) would not attribute this to a strong jet stream, as he would know that the jet stream goes from west to east.

Near the end, the pilot announces to the passengers that the buildings below them are those of the 1939 World's Fair, around "Lake Success." But the 1939 World's Fair was built north of Meadow Lake in Flushing Meadows Corona Park (in Queensborough), nearly 9 miles west of Lake Success.

Captain Farber calls the flight engineer, whose name is Hatch, "Magellan" on and off during the cockpit banter.