SST: Death Flight (1977)
Cutlass Aircraft has just completed America's first supersonic jetliner, and a host of celebrities and other important people have booked tickets for the maiden voyage, including former sportscaster Lyle Kingman (Martin Milner) and his ex-wife (Susan Strasberg), CEO Paul Whitley (Peter Graves), a soon-to-be married couple (John de Lancie and Season Hubley), Cutlass PR man Tim Vernon (Bert Convy) and his girlfriend Angela (Misty Rowe), television reporter Carla Stanley (Barbara Anderson), grounded pilot Hank Fairbanks (Doug McClure), and legendary aircraft designer Willy Basset (Burgess Meredith). Unfortunately the plane's hydraulic system has been sabotaged by a disgruntled Cutlass engineer (George Maharis), and last-minute passenger Dr. Therman (Brock Peters) has brought a deadly strain of influenza aboard. With no working controls at 60,000 feet over the Atlantic, Captain Walsh (Robert Reed), McClure, Meredith, and Cutlass VP Marshall Cole (Lorne Greene), have to find a way to get Maiden One down safely.
ONE HOUR AFTER TAKE OFF...SUDDENLY IT HAPPENS!
Bob Connors: Don't tell me what to do, you pansy!
David: I've been called that before.
Bob Connors: Yeah, and what do you do about it?
David: Try to ignore it. And if that fails, a knee to the groin usually works. You're not coming forward.
Director David Lowell Rich also helmed The Concorde... Airport '79 (1979), which had a similar plot.
According to Billy Crystal, when he was on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (1962) (Earl Holliman/Charles Nelson Reilly/Billy Crystal/Donna Theodore/Merie Earle (1977)), the title of this movie was 'The Flight of the Maiden'.
For a TV movie this is risqu?; there is a nude scene with blonde bombshell Misty Rowe. However, the nudity is not part of the American TV-movie. It's only part of the re-titled Death Flight that was shown overseas, in European theaters.
Spoofed on Mystery Science THEATER 3000, MST3K, and February 19, 1989. That was Season '0' KTMA Episode 13. In this episode Dr. Forester wins big in Vegas playing Keno
Misty Rowe's nude scene was only shown overseas, when this American TV movie played in theaters. The title was shortened to Death Flight. This is the version currently streaming on Amazon Prime (as of 2023).
Continuity
When the helicopter lands from "World Health," to when it takes are off is two different locations.
Factual errors
The decompression at 65,000 feet should have killed everyone.
Despite the fact that all commercial supersonic aircraft, proposed or realized, were designed with cabins having no more than 4 passenger seats per row, the interior of the aircraft depicted in this film is clearly that of a Lockheed L-1011 wide-body.
Miscellaneous
When Burgess Meredith, Doug McClure and Loren Green walk up the boarding stairs 11 minutes and 30 seconds into the film, a bug can be seen on the camera lens.
Errors in geography
There are no mountains in the vicinity of Dakar, Senegal.