How Accurate Is The Crash Scene From Flight

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Luck

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Luck
Just like the title says how accurate is the crash scene from the film Flight with Denzel Washington.
In case you haven't seen it here's a link to a YouTube clip of the scene


Sorry if this has been asked before. I also just cannot be bothered to sit through those 30 minutes long videos from pilots with YouTube channels who have like 25 mins worth of unrelated garbage (like answers to comments of previous vids), 30 seconds somewhere in the middle dedicated to answering the question and 4mins 30 seconds of sponsored contents
 
Also bonus marks if someone can answer this, What exactly is "Manual Control" that Denzel's character refers to when he turns that lever?
 
The only thing accurate in that sequence is that the Captain sits in the left seat.

The airplane is clearly a later DC9 variant. I flew DC9s for 12 years. The stabilizer failure scenario is based on the failure experienced by Alaska 261 and was likely picked so they could do the ridiculous inverted flight stunt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Airlines_Flight_261

The levers that they turns for "manual control" are not something that you have on a DC9. (I'm sure they control the flux capacitors) They resemble disconnect levers that are used in the flight control systems of a number of other aircraft which separate the left and right yokes in either aileron or elevator control. They would be used if one side becomes jammed to separate the other yoke from the jam and allow control of (usually) half of the control surfaces that aren't jammed. The DC9s use a spring and torsion bar system to do the split.
 
Well, the plane broke after the pilot exceeded the maximum turbulent air penetration speed, so that part could be accurate I guess, but they didn't explain it that way. Other than that it's inane Hollywood fantasy including the utterly ridiculous reaction of the F/O.
 
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It’s a little-known fact that Flight was never supposed to be a movie. It was originally produced as a drinking game for airline pilots. If you’re the first to call out an error, everyone else has to drink. Unfortunately, the resulting liver damage led to a huge pilot shortage in the airlines, the game was banned, and they had to release it to movie theaters.
 
iamtheari said:
It’s a little-known fact that Flight was never supposed to be a movie. It was originally produced as a drinking game for airline pilots. If you’re the first to call out an error, everyone else has to drink. Unfortunately, the resulting liver damage led to a huge pilot shortage in the airlines, the game was banned, and they had to release it to movie theaters.
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LOL that's actually funny cuz Denzel is an alcoholic in the movie :p
 
dmspilot said:
Well, the plane broke after the pilot exceeded the maximum turbulent air penetration speed, so that part could be accurate I guess, but they didn't explain it that way. Other than that it's inane Hollywood fantasy including the utterly ridiculous reaction of the F/O.
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Ok good, I couldn't have been the only one who thought the F/O ****ting himself as if it were his second day flying was super weird but I guess its just Hollywood
 
Larry in TN said:
The only thing accurate in that sequence is that the Captain sits in the left seat.

The airplane is clearly a later DC9 variant. I flew DC9s for 12 years. The stabilizer failure scenario is based on the failure experienced by Alaska 261 and was likely picked so they could do the ridiculous inverted flight stunt.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Airlines_Flight_261

The levers that they turns for "manual control" are not something that you have on a DC9. (I'm sure they control the flux capacitors) They resemble disconnect levers that are used in the flight control systems of a number of other aircraft which separate the left and right yokes in either aileron or elevator control. They would be used if one side becomes jammed to separate the other yoke from the jam and allow control of (usually) half of the control surfaces that aren't jammed. The DC9s use a spring and torsion bar system to do the split.
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Great answer and thanks a bunch for that link to Alaska Airlines 261. Good to know it wasn't completely made up
 
Luck said:
Ok good, I couldn't have been the only one who thought the F/O ****ting himself as if it were his second day flying was super weird but I guess its just Hollywood
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We don't really know how we'll react to a serious emergency until we experience one, yes?
 
Luck said:
Just like the title says how accurate is the crash scene from the film Flight with Denzel Washington.
In case you haven't seen it here's a link to a YouTube clip of the scene


Sorry if this has been asked before. I also just cannot be bothered to sit through those 30 minutes long videos from pilots with YouTube channels who have like 25 mins worth of unrelated garbage (like answers to comments of previous vids), 30 seconds somewhere in the middle dedicated to answering the question and 4mins 30 seconds of sponsored contents
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They actually were flying upside down for awhile. Go to 1620:38
https://www.tailstrike.com/310100.htm
 
how 'accurate' is it compared to what? it's.....a MOVIE.
 
I thought the movie was poorly titled. it had very little to do with flight, the fact that Denzel Washington's character was a pilot was nearly incidental to the plot. The fact that he was a raging alcoholic was more to the issue. Instead of Flight they should have called it Drunk.
 
steingar said:
I thought the movie was poorly titled. it had very little to do with flight, the fact that Denzel Washington's character was a pilot was nearly incidental to the plot. The fact that he was a raging alcoholic was more to the issue. Instead of Flight they should have called it Drunk.
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Not into metaphors are you. The movie was about flight, just not the kind that uses airplanes. Still a bad movie, but they knew what they were doing when they titled it.
 
eman1200 said:
how 'accurate' is it compared to what? it's.....a MOVIE.
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Accurate when compared to real life. Some movies and TV shows are very accurate when compared to real life an example that comes to mind is medical dramas, they use real medical practices. I was watching House M.D (I think) with a friend who is in the medical field and he told me the way they intubate patients is something right out of a medical textbook, he also said that even though some episodes tended to exaggerate the medical conditions they were for the most part pretty spot on with the symptoms.
 
Bob Noel said:
We don't really know how we'll react to a serious emergency until we experience one, yes?
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Yes you are absolutely right, but I will also say that if you listen to recordings on YouTube obtained from the CVR after a crash, whether or not the pilots survived both of them sounded calm and professional all the way up till the crash. I feel that the CO-pilot's behaviour in that movie was a bit over the top, yes of course pilots are humans and will experience human emotions but at the end of the day I would think that after all the training they underwent to earn their license they would be experienced enough to prevent their emotions from getting in the way of dealing with the issue at hand. Like in that scene he's clearly panicking and not communicating effectively with the pilot like when he says "What do you mean roll it?"
 
steingar said:
I thought the movie was poorly titled. it had very little to do with flight, the fact that Denzel Washington's character was a pilot was nearly incidental to the plot. The fact that he was a raging alcoholic was more to the issue. Instead of Flight they should have called it Drunk.
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***DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T WATCHED THE MOVIE AND DON'T WANT SPOILERS*****

IMO the movie was pretty bad. I did not like the ending, sure I get the whole character arc about him finally admitting that he has a problem with alcohol and seeking help, but I will say that going confessing and going to jail was a dumb thing to do. I know that this is a controversial topic but I believe that prisons do a **** poor job in terms of rehabilitation. In fact there is evidence to suggest that ppl dealing with addiction end up worse off after going to jail than if they had not...Just my 2 cents
 
iamtheari said:
The cross-product of those two: Airplane Repo.
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HA! HA! HA! I saw a clip from that series on youtube where a fist fight breaks out between the repo man and the owner of the plane where the latter bloodied up the former's face resulting in the sheriffs department having to get called. Though a lot of the comments said that the whole scene was staged and the blood was most likely fake
 
dmspilot said:
Not into metaphors are you. The movie was about flight, just not the kind that uses airplanes. Still a bad movie, but they knew what they were doing when they titled it.
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Yeah I agree the movie was pretty bad, check out my response about why I hated the ending above if ur interested
 
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe said:
Thank God that they had inverted fuel and oil systems...
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Yeah, well, they did show a loss of oil pressure when they were inverted which acknowledges the fact that transport jets do not have inverted oil systems.

I can't give them much credit for that, though, because that was after they had pulled the fire handles which shut off fuel, hydraulics, and pneumatics to/from the engine prior to arming the fire bottles. The engines would have stopped running just as soon as those fire handles were pulled.
 
steingar said:
I thought the movie was poorly titled. it had very little to do with flight, the fact that Denzel Washington's character was a pilot was nearly incidental to the plot. The fact that he was a raging alcoholic was more to the issue. Instead of Flight they should have called it Drunk.
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It was like an infomercial for AA
 
Probably the move "Sully" was more realistic on how the emergency was handled. They squawked 7700, used check lists, etc.
 
Bob Noel said:
We don't really know how we'll react to a serious emergency until we experience one, yes?
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That has been true for me, to some extent, although the few emergencies I have had taught me that I'm pretty consistent in flaring too high during emergency landings! :redface:

Airline crews get a LOT more recurrent training on emergency procedures than I do, however!
 
Luck said:
LOL Follow up question, what's more made up Hollywood aviation scenes or reality TV :p
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Ah, yes, Reality TV. Product of the Writer's Guild of America's writer's strike in 2007-2008. The studios responded by declaring 'We don't need professional writers! We'll create unscripted reality TV!'

Which has proved, conclusively, that the studios really need professional writers.
 
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Luck said:
Yes you are absolutely right, but I will also say that if you listen to recordings on YouTube obtained from the CVR after a crash, whether or not the pilots survived both of them sounded calm and professional all the way up till the crash. I feel that the CO-pilot's behaviour in that movie was a bit over the top, yes of course pilots are humans and will experience human emotions but at the end of the day I would think that after all the training they underwent to earn their license they would be experienced enough to prevent their emotions from getting in the way of dealing with the issue at hand. Like in that scene he's clearly panicking and not communicating effectively with the pilot like when he says "What do you mean roll it?"
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If you want real life:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birgenair_Flight_301

Where the captain freezes and forgets how to recover from a stall.

And then there’s Air France 447, where 2 FO forgot how to fly and let their emotions take over.
 
Larry in TN said:
Yeah, well, they did show a loss of oil pressure when they were inverted which acknowledges the fact that transport jets do not have inverted oil systems.

I can't give them much credit for that, though, because that was after they had pulled the fire handles which shut off fuel, hydraulics, and pneumatics to/from the engine prior to arming the fire bottles. The engines would have stopped running just as soon as those fire handles were pulled.
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Slight change of topic, but this was one of my big problems with the movie Air Force One. You'd think, if you were touching down on a runway, with hijackers banging at the cockpit door, you'd go ahead and pull the fire handles. Engines done, movie ends in 10 minutes.
 
Palmpilot said:
That has been true for me, to some extent, although the few emergencies I have had taught me that I'm pretty consistent in flaring too high during emergency landings! :redface:
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BTDT. Fortunately it was a 10000’ runway so I could still make one of the turnoffs.

Cheers
 
I was at a relative's house and they decided to watch this because they thought I might like it, being a pilot. Um no.
 
I always thought that what the producers of Flight were trying to tell us is that the only reason Denzel's character was able to pull off that maneuver and save most of the people on that flight was because Denzel was drinking and using drugs. A sober pilot would have killed them all.
 
Luck said:
HA! HA! HA! I saw a clip from that series on youtube where a fist fight breaks out between the repo man and the owner of the plane where the latter bloodied up the former's face resulting in the sheriffs department having to get called. Though a lot of the comments said that the whole scene was staged and the blood was most likely fake
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Spoiler alert, I guess - it's virtually all fake. I mean every bit of it - the airplanes that they repo aren't actually being repo'ed, they film scenes multiple times, etc. Everything is staged. It's fiction.

Source - they've done some filming at my local airport, our former airport manager (Heather) was on the show for a few episodes, and I've talked to Kevin Lacey* about it (he had some interesting things to say about the show).

* Believe me, this is not "name dropping" - I'm sure he has no idea who I am. I volunteer at the radio station at Sun N Fun and have had the opportunity to meet and interview some of aviation's celebrities, which has been pretty cool.
 
Luck said:
Yes you are absolutely right, but I will also say that if you listen to recordings on YouTube obtained from the CVR after a crash, whether or not the pilots survived both of them sounded calm and professional all the way up till the crash. I feel that the CO-pilot's behaviour in that movie was a bit over the top, yes of course pilots are humans and will experience human emotions but at the end of the day I would think that after all the training they underwent to earn their license they would be experienced enough to prevent their emotions from getting in the way of dealing with the issue at hand. Like in that scene he's clearly panicking and not communicating effectively with the pilot like when he says "What do you mean roll it?"
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So you’re saying that John Wayne ***** slapping Robert Stack isn’t realistic CRM?
 
Aerodynamically, if you're in an uncontrolled dive, rolling inverted would turn that into a climb. However if it is still uncontrolled, you'll just stall inverted. Practically, the theory won't matter much.

Edit: Assumption of jammed controls causing a dive.
 
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BananaMan and cocoa puff, nuff said.
 
bflynn said:
Aerodynamically, if you're in an uncontrolled dive, rolling inverted would turn that into a climb. However if it is still uncontrolled, you'll just stall inverted. Practically, the theory won't matter much.
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It depends why you're in the dive doesn't it? If your elevator is jammed down, then yes.
 
Lindberg said:
It depends why you're in the dive doesn't it? If your elevator is jammed down, then yes.
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Right, good catch. I was incomplete, it certainly matters why.
 
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