Airport 1975

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Airport 1975

Directed by	Jack Smight
Produced by	William Frye Jennings Lang
Written by	Don Ingalls (screenplay)
Starring	Charlton Heston Karen Black
Music by	John Cacavas
Cinematography	Philip H. Lathrop
Editing by	J. Terry Williams
Distributed by	Universal
Release date(s)	October 18, 1974
Running time	106 min.
Language	English
Preceded by	Airport
Followed by	Airport '77
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Airport 1975 is a 1974 Disaster film and the first sequel to the successful 1970 hit Airport. Unlike the original film, Airport 1975 was a bona fide "blockbuster" disaster film, with an "all-star" cast and extensive promotional campaign. The movie is one among many of a class of Disaster films that became a movie-going craze during the 1970s. Its plot devices and characterizations, including a singing nun (Helen Reddy), a former glamorous star (Gloria Swanson as herself), an alcoholic (Myrna Loy), a child in need of an organ transplant (Linda Blair) and a chatterbox (Sid Caesar) were parodied in 1980's Airplane!. The characteristics of Airport 1975 were also used in numerous similar films to come, including the film's sequels Airport '77 and The Concorde...Airport '79. Though derided by the critics upon its release, Airport 1975 was ultimately a success. With a budget of US$3 million, the film made over US$47 million [1] at the box office. Helen Reddy was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Most Promising Newcomer - Female. The film was included, however, in the popular book The Fifty Worst Films of All Time three years later in 1978.

1 Plot
2 Trivia
3 Cast
4 Sequels
5 External links

Plot

While flying his small Beechcraft Baron private plane from New Mexico to Idaho, businessman Scott Freeman suffers a fatal heart attack and crashes into the flight deck of a commercial Boeing 747 airliner attempting to land at Salt Lake City, Utah, tearing a hole over the co-pilot's seat. With the co-pilot ejected by explosive decompression, the flight engineer dead, and the pilot blinded, First Stewardess Nancy Pryor takes control of the damaged plane with the help (over the radio) of chief training pilot/lover Alan Murdock. Unable to climb, leaking fuel, and dodging the peaks of the Wasatch Mountains, an air to air rescue attempt is undertaken from a jet-powered HH-53 Super Jolly Green Giant helicopter flown by the USAF Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Service. Finally, Captain Murdock is able to land the plane safely at Salt Lake City Airport.

Trivia

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The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

Columbia Airlines is the name of a fictional airline used in the film. The plane used in the film was an American Airlines Boeing 747-123, registration number N9675, which was delivered to the carrier in 1971. The aircraft was redressed in the "Columbia Airlines" livery for this film. American flew the aircraft both as a passenger jet and later as a freighter only, under the "American Freighter" titles (a vintage picture of the actual aircraft used in the film can be found here: [2]). The aircraft's current owner and operator is United Parcel Service under the registration number N675UP and, as of 2005, is now stored at Roswell, New Mexico. The latest picture of the aircraft (prior to retirement in 2005) can be found here: [3]
The exterior shots in the beginning of the film were shot at Washington Dulles International Airport in Chantilly, Virginia, as were shots from the following two "Airport" films.
Charlton Heston spent time training to fly a Boeing 747 during production, and several scenes show him actually flying a real 747.
The 1960 film "The Crowded Sky" tells a similar story of a U.S. Navy training aircraft involved in a midair collision with an airliner. In this film, Efram Zimbalist, Jr., played the U.S. Navy pilot killed in the collision while Dana Andrews is the captain of the airliner.[4]
The Beech Baron in the film uses the callsign 232 Zulu, which implies that its registration would be N232Z. Exterior shots show the registration as N9750Y. In a tragic coincidence, N9750Y was involved in a fatal midair collision with a Cessna 180 near Stockton, California on August 24, 1989 killing both pilots. [5]
Footage of the Boeing 747 featured in "Airport 1975" has been re-used numerous times as stock footage in various other films (such as Elizabethtown), due to the fictional "Columbia Airlines" logo on the aircraft. The footage of takeoff was also re-used in the sequel, Airport '77 -- without editing out the "Columbia" logo on the tail of the aircraft.
First broadcast on NBC television, September 20, 1976.
The Boeing was also seen in The Incredible Hulk TV series Season 1, Episode 5: "747" Original Air Date: 7 April 1978. [6]
The movie is referenced in an episode of Family Guy, where the actress Karen Black appears in order to land a plane. Peter Griffin mentions that she landed a plane in "Airport '75", but the cast of Dawson's Creek is too young to remember the movie.