The Crash of Flight 401 (1978)
October 29, 1978Release Date
The Crash of Flight 401 (1978)
October 29, 1978Release Date

Plot.
Where to Watch.
Cast & Crew.

William Shatner
Carl Tobias

Adrienne Barbeau
Veronica Daniels

Brooke Bundy
Camille Lawrence

Christopher Connelly
Mike Tagliarino

Lorraine Gary
Emily Mulwray

Ron Glass
Jerry Grant

Sharon Gless
Lesley Fuller

Brett Halsey
Standish

Joyce Jameson
Sophie Cross

George Maharis
Evan Walsh

Ed Nelson
Philip Mulwray

Gerald S. O'Loughlin
Larry Cross

Artie Shaw
Elderly Passenger

Joe Silver
Alvin Jessop

Laraine Stephens
Ginny Duffy

W.K. Stratton
Ray Ordway

Richard Yniguez
Osario

Eddie Albert
Capt. Dunn

Maria Melendez
Cecilia Tagliarino

George Murdock
Claypool

Don 'Red' Barry
Helicopter Pilot

Jerry Douglas
Miami Approach Controller

Susan Mullen
Flight Attendant

Mark Pinter
Stretcher Bearer

Frank Schuller
Watson

Judith Searle
Dr. Claire

C. Lindsay Workman
Dr. Baylor

Leoda Richards
Passenger (uncredited)

Barry Shear
Director

Jacques R. Marquette
Director of Photography

Sarah Elder
Book

Steve Brown
Teleplay

Alexander A. Mayer
Art Direction

Malcolm Stuart
Executive Producer

Mary Ann Good
Set Decoration

Rob Elder
Book

Donald S. Sanford
Teleplay

Charles W. Fries
Executive Producer

Sam E. Waxman
Editor

Edward Montagne
Producer

Maureen Gates
Costume Design

Frank Novak
Costume Design

Eddy Lawrence Manson
Music

Dick Crockett
Stunt Coordinator

John Fresco
Music Supervisor

James Pergola
Additional Photography

Caro Jones
Casting

Thomas Del Ruth
Camera Operator

Arthur Brewer
Special Effects

Lurene Tuttle

Walt Davis

Maria Elena Cordero

Shirley O'Hara

Bill Hindman

Read Morgan

Marcy Lafferty

Susan Brown

Ed Call

J. Kenneth Campbell

Royal Dano

Roxanna Bonilla-Giannini

Lane Smith

Donna Kei Benz

Ralph Brown

Roger Hampton

George Ranito Jordan
Details.
Wiki.
Crash (also known as The Crash of Flight 401) is a made-for-TV drama film aired on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) on October 29, 1978. It was directed by Barry Shear and based on the true story of the first crash of a wide-body aircraft, that of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar which crashed in the Florida Everglades near Miami on the night of December 29, 1972. The film more or less follows the true events of the crash, although the names of key characters were changed and certain dramatic events were fictionalized. The crash sequence was one of the most authentic (and expensive) for television of the time, using multiple stunts, pyrotechnics and flyaway set pieces.
The film stars William Shatner as maverick National Transportation Safety Board crash investigator Carl Tobias, who is called in to review the jetliner crash under pressure from his superiors to exonerate Lockheed of responsibility. Although the film implies that Lockheed was negligent in the design of the TriStar's flight control systems, it concludes by citing the NTSB's official determination that the crash was due to pilot error: the crew's failure to properly monitor the flight instruments during the last four minutes of flight. The crew was distracted by a blown light bulb in the landing gear position indicator display panel, which caused them not to notice that they had inadvertently disengaged the autopilot and put the TriStar into a slow, imperceptible descent. Eddie Albert portrayed the captain, and Lane Smith, in an early role, portrayed the hospitalized and barely alive surviving flight engineer who alerts Tobias to a computer "mismatch" in the autopilot. The cast also included Adrienne Barbeau and Sharon Gless, whose characters were based on the actual flight attendants tending to the passengers that fateful night. Lorraine Gary, Ed Nelson, and Ron Glass played noteworthy passengers.
It was the second made-for-TV film based on the crash, following The Ghost of Flight 401 which aired on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in February 1978.
Reviewer James Brown of the Los Angeles Times called it "a well-crafted, professionally polished work that falls into the unfortunate trap of trying to tell too much in too little time -- ending up with some admirable vignettes but no clear, sustaining focus to link them together."
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