For the argument between announcers concerning the white and red zones at the airport, the producers hired the same voice artists who had made the real-world announcements at Los Angeles International Airport. At the real airport, the white zone is for loading and unloading of passengers only, and there's no stopping in the red zone (except for transit buses). They were also married to each other in real life.

Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, and Jerry Zucker chose actors such as Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, and Leslie Nielsen because of their reputation for playing no-nonsense characters. Until this movie, these actors had not done comedy so their "straight-arrow" personas and line delivery made the satire in the movie all the more poignant and funnier. Bridges was initially reluctant to take his role in the movie, but his sons persuaded him to do so.

Aeromexico was the only airline to buy the movie for their in-flight entertainment.

According to the Blu-ray commentary, the song "Stayin' Alive" was sped up by 10 percent for the dance scene of the movie. Permission from The Bee Gees had to be obtained to speed it up.

The doctor role was Leslie Nielsen's first comedic role. He later said he was delighted to get the offer, fearing that he was getting too old for anything but "elderly grandfather" roles. The studio actually wanted to cast Dom DeLuise as the doctor, but directors Jerry Zucker, David Zucker, and Jim Abrahams prevailed. This led to Nielsen gaining a whole new career in wacky comedies, particularly other Zucker Abrahams Zucker (ZAZ) productions.

Continuity

During the opening montage when certain principal characters are introduced, Joey (the little boy) can be seen in the far background carrying a brown bag in the shot with the Hari Krishnas. A few seconds later he is getting out of a car with his parents and luggage.

The external shots of the aircraft used are of a Boeing 707. The interior flight deck is of a Convair 880 or 990.

When the plane lands, the landing gear collapses and the plane is on its belly when the passengers disembark. Later, when Ted and Elaine are kissing next to the plane, it is sitting on landing gear which is intact.

When Elaine and Striker are rolling around in the sand, a beached fish appears and disappears in the sand depending on the camera angle.

When he first starts telling the old lady his story, a seatcover is between the back of the seats they're sitting on, and the upholstery on both seats is the same. at the end of the story, the seat upholstery is different on both seats and the center seatcover is missing. The upholstery is the same and the center seatback cover is back however a bit later in the film when Ted is sitting next to Elaine.



Factual errors

The main plot point in this movie is that the entire cockpit crew is incapacitated as a result of food poisoning from them all eating the fish served as one of the choices for the in-flight meal. However, FAA regulations at the time prohibited both pilots from eating the same meal, specifically to prevent problems like this. The rule has been changed to allow same-meal choices on domestic, but not overseas, flights. One of the pilots should have ordered the steak.

According to the dialogue, the airplane is supposed to land on runway 9 (niner), but the number 30 is clearly visible on the runway's threshold as the plane lands. There is no runway 30 at Chicago O'Hare airport.

Ted flips a switch after saying, "This must turn on the landing lights," and puts the plane into a nosedive, but the shot showing him turning the switch off is obviously on the radio as it has markings of "FREQ" (frequency) and "KC" (kilocycles). Flipping a switch on a radio won't send a plane into a nosedive.

The seating arrangement in the film is incorrect for a Boeing 707 (the aircraft used for all the exterior shots). The coach section of the 707 has 3 seats on each side for each row, yet the seating arrangement shown has 3 seats on the right side and 2 seats on the left for each row, similar to the arrangement for either a Convair 990 or a Douglas DC-9.

Jet airplanes do not have a gearshift, instead relying merely on adjusted engine-thrust to vary the power and/or speed of the aircraft.



Incorrectly regarded as goofs

Although the plane clearly has jet engines, the engine noise heard inside the cabin throughout the film is of a piston-engined propeller plane. This engine noise is taken from the film Zero Hour! (1957) and is a long-running gag: Airplane! (1980) is a spoof of disaster films such as Zero Hour and Airport (1970).

In flashbacks throughout the movie, Ted states he was in the Air Force, wears a Navy uniform, and recovers in an Army hospital. However, this may well be deliberate, as other elements of his back story are clearly intended to be inconsistent. Other examples are the aircraft from his squadron shown in his flashbacks are from a range of nationalities and eras, including pre-Wright brothers.

Despite what Ted Striker hears in his interior monologue, Pedro Borbon and Manny Mota were never on the same roster, so Mota could not have pinch-hit for Borbon. This is simply a case of someone imagining what they think would be really cool instead of an actual case of someone recalling something that happened.

The model airplane that the pilots give to the young boy who tours the cockpit is not the same kind of plane in which they're flying. The model is a 727, the plane being used is a 707. The pilot never said that it was a model of the plane that they were flying.

When the captain notifies Chicago of the emergency, he says nothing about food poisoning, but the air traffic controller orders that all meal services should be canceled. This could simply be because the character never liked the food on meal services, a way to comment on how lousy airline food really is, and not because of the food poisoning on the aircraft.



Revealing mistakes

At the airport, Oveur gets a call about the "transplantation girl" with the white/red/black phones. After he picks up the wrong phone, (script supervisor) Nancy Hansen can be clearly heard laughing in the background.

During the disco-dance scene, when Elaine tosses Ted up in the air and he (his stunt double) flies into the audience, Robert Hays (Ted) is clearly visible among the spectators, waiting to run back onto the dance floor.

During the Girl Scouts fight scene, one is thrown over a railing and smashes a table. The fight continues, the other girl gets kicked backwards and out of frame, at which point she clearly bumps into the camera, causing it to wobble.

In the disco-bar scene, the bum that gets stabbed in the back can be seen wearing protective padding that sticks out of his clothes, and tears in his jacket from previous takes are visible.

When Elaine picks up Ted and starts swinging him around in the disco bar scene, the wires that hold him up are visible for a brief second.



Miscellaneous

The fictional airline in the film is called "Trans American." But above the ticketing counter in the airport, it reads "Trans WORLD Airlines" (the real-life TWA).

When the First Jive Dude is ordering his meal, the subtitles are incomplete. In addition to steak, he orders a cup of coffee. The second dude's order is for a hamburger ("chompin' on some buns") with everything on it ("draggin' through the garden") but the subtitle says fish, which is what Elaine brings him.

The sign shown through the window of the psychiatric hospital has Pentathol misspelled as "Pentathal".

When Elaine manually re-inflates the Otto the autopilot you can see condensation in the tube from previous takes.

Earlier when Elaine sits in the pilot seat briefly, Steve in tower control asks her to check airspeed and she reports 520 MPH as indicator shows. When Ted sits in the pilot's seat and checks the flight controls, he reads the air speed as 520 knots (~600 MPH) which is the correct cruising speed of a 707 but significantly more than closeup of the air speed indicator which was fluctuating around 500 MPH.



Anachronisms

In one of Ted's war flashbacks, a Visa credit card is seen. It has been six years since Ted last flew, meaning this flashback takes place in 1973-74 at the earliest. At that point in time, Visa was still called by its original name, BankAmeriCard.



Audio/visual unsynchronized

When Rex Kramer first enters the airport, he is approached by numerous solicitors who Kramer then proceeds to rough up. The solicitors explain their various causes just before they are assaulted. However it is clear to see that none of them are talking.

When the nun slaps the hysterical wife in the cabin, the slap is very audible but the nun barely touches the woman's face.

During the fight between the two Girl Scouts at the Magumbo Bar, one is thrown across the bar and into the jukebox. When her head hits the jukebox window, the sound of shattering glass is heard, but it's clear that there is no glass in the window frame.

At the Mayo Clinic with the beating heart on the surgeon's desk, although a heartbeat sound has been overdubbed, underneath that the little motor inside the heart making it pulsate can be heard. This noise is absent in the next shot, which shows the heart bouncing around in front of the surgeon's face.

When the woman plays the guitar for the girl in the hospital bed, her fingers aren't in the right positions on the fret of the guitar to play the chords that are heard during her song.



Crew or equipment visible

When Captain Rex Kramer goes into the airport and throws the different annoying solicitors around, the tan and blue mat that the stuntmen fall on is visible by Kramer's leg.

When Ted is dancing to "Stayin' Alive", during one part of the dance, strings can be seen supporting him as he leans backwards at an impossible angle at which to naturally stand.

Look closely at the fighting Girl Scouts and it's noticeable that one is wearing a safety pad on her back.

When Ted catches Elaine in the LA Airport terminal for the first time to talk to her, a crew member is visible pulling a cable.

When Striker comes back into the cockpit after talking to the doc, he moves Otto out of the way, revealing a hand behind the pilot's seat.



Errors in geography

The Peace Corps scene is set in Africa, but the elephant is obviously an Indian elephant as indicated by the small ears.

The Peace Corps scene is set in Africa, but the sound of a kookaburra--an Australian bird--can be heard in the background.



Plot holes

Any flight plan for a Los Angeles-Chicago flight has, and had in 1980, multiple diversion airports considered and planned for in the event of emergency. The plane would certainly be able to land much sooner than in two hours in the event of serious engine failure, let alone medical emergency. Instead of speaking to Rumack, Captain Oveur would already be busy arranging for the landing.



Boom mic visible

When Paul Carey comes to pick up Rex Kramer at his home, Mrs. Kramer is holding Rex's pilot uniform in a mirror while talking to Paul. A mirror behind Mrs. Kramer shows a microphone at the top.



Character error

During the African jungle scene, Elaine refers to plans she and Ted had made before the war. It was earlier established in the dive bar (where Ted wore the Navy uniform) that they had met during the war, not before.

After they lose the number 4 engine, Ted says he forgot to check the oil pressure. In the following scene, Kramer says Ted forgot to check the oil temperature.