The F-16s that are scrambled to intercept and, if need be, to shoot down the second flight appear with different armaments in almost every shot.
Initially, they're carrying a full complement of missiles as well as bombs for an assault of ground targets. Later, they're shown with only Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. In almost all the scenes in which the pilot is pictured, there are no missiles on the wingtip pylons.
The only depiction that makes sense is that of the jets carrying Sidewinders. Without air-to-air missiles, the jets' only way of shooting down the airliner would be to use their nose-mounted cannon. Any jet scrambled to intercept an air threat, especially in the middle of the United States, would most certainly be carrying air-to-air missiles and no other type of wing- or belly-mounted weapon.
Initially, they're carrying a full complement of missiles as well as bombs for an assault of ground targets. Later, they're shown with only Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. In almost all the scenes in which the pilot is pictured, there are no missiles on the wingtip pylons.
The only depiction that makes sense is that of the jets carrying Sidewinders. Without air-to-air missiles, the jets' only way of shooting down the airliner would be to use their nose-mounted cannon. Any jet scrambled to intercept an air threat, especially in the middle of the United States, would most certainly be carrying air-to-air missiles and no other type of wing- or belly-mounted weapon.
The exterior shots of Flight 420 in the air show a Boeing 747, but it is described by characters and shown on a blueprint as a smaller three-engined Boeing 727.
The initial exterior shot of Flight 420 shows a Boeing 747 (with the distinctive hump) but the interior cabin shows the 3x3 seating configuration of a much smaller plane.
The airplane that crashed is first shown taking off as a 747. But the interior is more consistent with a 727 as are the aircraft diagrams shown later.
The hacker extends the landing gear on IA61 while it's at normal cruising speed. That's far above the airspeed at which the landing gear is designed to be operated. The landing gear doors would have been ripped off the airplane as soon as they opened.
The plane used for Fight 420, which was supposed to go from Pittsburgh to Phoenix, is described as a Boeing 727. When the episode aired in 2014, the 727 was pretty much past its prime and very few airlines used it (no American airlines use it at all as of February 2016). The Boeing 737 or Airbus A320 would most likely have been used for the flight from Pittsburgh to Phoenix.
a multitude of factual errors - including the fact that the autopilot could easily be turned off - instantly disabling the hacking attempt - are revealed by a real Boeing 747 pilot named Kelsey in 2 videos in his Youtube channel called "74 Gear" (Sept 2021)
The FAA guy Hosswell, when talking with members of the team, states that porpoising could be caused by the jet stream of another aircraft in the vicinity. The actual term for the turbulence left behind an aircraft is termed wake, not jet stream. For example, FAA controllers alert smaller departing aircraft following larger aircraft "Caution, wake turbulence" referring to the unstable air behind the larger aircraft.
The quote "I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" was attributed to J. Robert Oppenheimer. He was quoting the "Bhagavad Gita," a Sanskrit text. However, Oppenheimer famously referenced the quote after viewing an atomic bomb test, so Hotchner was likely referring to that.
At the site of the airliner crash, firefighters were attempting to put out the fires around the downed plane with water. Airplane crash fires are always attacked with fire-retardant foam, not water. Water would cause the burning jet fuel to spread out over a wider area and make the fire worse.
The F.A.A. rep twice refers to flights taking off at a time followed by "Zulu." In the military time zone system, Zulu refers to the UTC/GMT time zone, which is at least 5 or more hours ahead of the time in the U.S. But the times he mentioned were normal afternoon U.S. flight times on the day it happened.