My favorite TV shows and movies that involve planes

Originally published on October 4, 2019

One of my favorite settings for either a movie or a TV show is a commercial airplane.  It's something that I can relate to, having flown many times myself, so whenever something happens, such as turbulence, I know what the characters are going through, more or less.

Here are my favorite television shows and movies that involve planes:

LOST: LOST is one of my favorite television shows of all time, and the infamous Oceanic Flight 815 may be the most iconic single flight in television history.  Oceanic Flight 815, which was from Sydney to Los Angeles, crashes over an uncharted island in the South Pacific, where strange and crazy things happen to the survivors of the crash, the gist of it being there were already people there on the island that they have conflicts with.  After some of the survivors get off the island, they even board another flight (Ajira flight 316, Los Angeles to Guam) to get back to the island because the island "wasn't done with them".  

Snakes on a Plane: This film made me apprehensive of flying for a bit.  Obviously I am very unlikely to travel on a plane transporting live snakes, but it still was easy to imagine.  My least favorite part was probably when the snakes went through the plane's plumbing and up through the toilet to surprise one unlucky man.  Or when the giant snake ate a dog.  Fortunately Samuel L. Jackson was able to land that "Monday to Friday" plane after those "monkey-fighting" snakes killed both pilots.

Air Force One: I love Harrison Ford for his roles as Han Solo and Indiana Jones, but he was great in this as well.  I honestly don't remember too much from this film.  I do remember the terrorists took over the plane but of course Harrison takes it right back.  Gary Oldman was terrific as the villain, as I recall.  

Red Eye: To me, Red Eye is a vastly underrated film.  A lot of the film does take place on the plane, of course.  On the plane is a hotel manager who is blackmailed into switching the hotel room of the Head of Homeland Security so that he could be assassinated more easily.  He cons the hotel manager using her father as a hostage, and she attacks him as she leaves the plane and he chases her through the airport all the way to her home.  The best part about this film is how the man/villain doing this is goes from sweet and charming to threatening and disturbing. 

Breaking Bad: Not very prominent but it does become a decent-sized story-line in the end of season 2 and the beginning of season 3.  Two planes crash into each other over Albuquerque, New Mexico.  The cause is an air traffic controller who had just returned to work following the death of his daughter.  He was distracted and his grief was too much for him to function at his job and he failed to divert the commercial aircraft (Wayfairer 515) from the other aircraft.  The death of the air traffic controller's daughter was indirectly caused by the main character of the show.  In total 167 people perished from the collision.  The main character suggests it might have had something to do with faulty sensors/radar on the planes, perhaps as a way to assuage his guilt.  He also said that the disaster was "No Tenerife", referencing the Tenerife airport disaster in 1977. 

Sully: The film "Sully" reenacts the true story of Flight 1549 and how after a flock of birds destroyed both engines, captain Chesley Sullenberger had to execute a water landing into the Hudson River.  The main story of this film was the lawsuit/case that followed the accident.  The NTSB argued he could have landed in a nearby airport in Jersey and saved the millions of dollars in losing the plane.  He then proved that it was too risky and that trying to land there would have resulted in a crash landing, risking the lives of everyone on board.  Sully was played brilliantly by Tom Hanks.

Fast & Furious 6, Furious 7: In its more recent films, The Fast and the Furious franchise has included planes in its films.  In 6, Dominic Toretto is able to drive a Dodge Charger onto a plane, and then later drives through the plane and off it.  It's not entirely realistic, but it looks cool as heck.  In Furious 7, our group of good guys jump out of a plane... with cars!​  They drive their cars off of a C-130 military transport aircraft, and the cars have giant parachutes attached to them.  I don't know if this is even possible, but again, cool as heck.

My ties to the Aviation Industry

Originally published October 4, 2019

Aviation has always fascinated me: It's humanity's fastest way of commercial travel.  Anyone can get from one point on the planet to another within a day or so.  If you're referring to the contiguous United States, you can go from anywhere in the U.S. to another spot in the U.S. in under six hours.  Driving would take over eight times that.  To me, it's stunning to think where our country and our world would be without the invention of air travel.  People that have needed to get from one end of our country to the other can do so in a few hours, rather than over a day.

I have flown many times in my life, but not until I was 20 years old.  I had a long distance relationship (with my current girlfriend), and I had to go to California to see her, and she had to come up here to Washington to see me.  We would fly every couple months to see each other when we were long distance.  Now that she's moved up here, we still on occasion fly down to California to see her family. 

My most memorable flying experience would have to be flying to Hawaii with her.  We flew down to Los Angeles, then to Honolulu, where we stayed for a few days, then to Kona on the big island, then back to L.A., then back home.  These flights were the first time I had flown on an airline other than Southwest Airlines.  We flew Hawaiian Air between the islands of course.  I believe we flew Delta from between Hawaii and Los Angeles.  The flight that was the worst was from Kona to Los Angeles, because it was so early in the morning and we were both running off very little sleep.

Not only do I have a bit of experience flying, my dad used to work for Boeing.  I don't remember his job title or exactly what he did, but he worked on a computer and dealt with plane parts.  He didn't work for them too long, but he picked up some knowledge there he still on occasion tries to share with me.  Let's just say it's hard to retain.

My uncle, my dad's brother, currently works for Boeing and has for a long time.  He is more on the manual labor sector.  Again, I don't know his job title, but I know he transports a lot of plane parts.  

Not to mention both my grandfathers flew planes in World War II.  My paternal grandfather flew a B-17 in the navy and is still kicking at 93 years of age.  

Aviation is, in a way, in my blood.  It's kind of fitting I would work at an Aviation company.  I don't know if I'll ever pursue a career in the aviation industry further, but I can say that I am fascinated by it.  I have a lot to learn about it, however.