Falling from the Sky: Flight 174

Falling from the Sky: Flight 174
Directed by	Jorge Montesi
Written by	William and Marilyn Hoffer
Produced by	Joel Fields, Ronald Gilbert, Leonard Hill
Starring	William Devane, Scott Hylands, Shelley Hack
Distributed by	Hill/Fields Entertainment
Release dates	February 20, 1995
Running time	90 min
Language	English

Falling from the Sky: Flight 174 (also known as Freefall: Flight 174) is a 1995 television movie freely based on the story of the Gimli Glider. It follows the crew, their families and the passengers of the flight, set in 1983, from the preparations for departure to the crash landing in an abandoned airfield in Manitoba, and everything in between. Unlike the novel Freefall (by William and Marilyn Hoffer), the airline and flight number were changed from Air Canada Flight 143 to Canada World Airways Flight 174.

Cast

• William Devane — Captain Robert Pearson
• Scott Hylands — First Officer Maurice Quintal
• Shelley Hack — Flight Attendant Lynn Brown
• Kevin McNulty — Senior Flight Attendant Larry Roberts
• Gwynyth Walsh — Pearl Dion
• Suzy Joachim — Flight Attendant Florence Bisaillon
• Nicholas Turturro — Air traffic controller Al Williams
• Winston Rekert — Rick Dion
• Mariette Hartley — Beth Pearson

Synopsis

Template:Spoiler The movie starts with two airline pilots experiencing a sudden loss of power in the two engines of their airliner due to a fuel pump failure, and crashing shortly afterwards. It is revealed that they were in fact in a flight simulator. In complete disbelief that such a scenario could ever happen in real life, they protest to the examiner (played by the actual Robert Pearson). He tells them that "It isn't a dream. It happened."

Flashback to a few years earlier, on July 23, 1983 at Dorval Airport in Montreal. The ground crews of Canada World Airways struggle to convert gallons into liters and pounds into kilograms, as they prepare to refuel a brand-new Boeing 767 bound for Edmonton. This is the first aircraft in the fleet to use the metric system and they are about to make a terrible conversion mistake. Meanwhile, Beth Pearson (Mariette Hartley) drives her husband, Captain Robert Pearson (William Devane), to the airport, unusually anxious about hosting her in-laws later that day. Elsewhere in Montréal, First Officer Maurice Quintal (Scott Hylands) reluctantly accepts to cover for an injured colleague, leaving behind his sick wife.

The two airmen feel uneasy about their 767 having an inoperative fuel gauge, but are somewhat reassured to see the ground crews measuring the quantity of fuel in the tanks: 20,345 kg, or so they believe, enough to take them to Vancouver. Their Flight Management Computer will constantly indicate the quantity aboard. After a delay, the passengers board flight 174, including Rick Dion (Winston Rekert), the airline's chief mechanic, as well as his wife and three-year-old boy.

After take-off, Dion visits Pearson in the flight deck. Their conversation is suddenly interrupted by a series of beeps indicating a failure with one of the fuel pumps. After activating the cross-feeding valve between the tanks, the alarm stops. Later, another fuel pump fails. Quintal revises the notepad used by the ground crew in Montréal and discovers they have loaded 20,345 pounds instead of 20,345 kg, leading to a potential fuel starvation.

Pearson decides to divert to Winnipeg, much to the dismay of his passengers. The 767 is still far from that major airport, when suddenly, an alarm sounds, indicating a complete fuel starvation. It is followed by the failure of the two engines, and the complete shutdown of the glass cockpit until the ram air turbine kicks in and provides limited power to the instruments. The aircraft has become a giant glider. All the passengers start to appreciate what they believe are their last living moments.

Luckily, Pearson is a former glider pilot. Quintal suddenly remembers the presence of an abandoned airfield in Gimli and the crew decide to land there instead of attempting to reach Winnipeg or landing in water. Unknown to them, the airfield's abandoned runway is occupied by race cars and young cyclists, which they dodge all the way until touchdown. The nose landing gear collapses, yet the aircraft stops within a few meters of the end of the runway. Everyone survived.

Trivia and mistakes

• The aircraft is a Boeing 767, but the take-off sequence shows a Boeing 737 and the cabin layout is from a Boeing 747.
• Some of the actors' visible breath and warm clothing are inconsistent with the movie being set in July, in the middle of the summer.
• The real flight 143 made a stopover in Ottawa.
• During the final descent, the altimeter is shown counting down to zero (with its barometric setting occasionally changing), where a real altimeter would count down to the field elevation (750 ft). Only a radio altimeter would count down to zero upon touchdown. (It is possible to set a barometric altimeter to count down to zero feet field elevation by changing the QNH setting to the appropriate QFE setting, but this is unlikely in the absence of an operating control tower at Gimli.)

External links

• Falling from the Sky: Flight 174 at IMDb
• airodyssey.net - Movie review