12 Must-Watch Airline Disaster Movies: The Best & The Worst

Let's face it, there's nothing quite like the vision of Karen black struggling to read the altimeter on a Columbia Airlines Boeing 747 as a heroic Charlton Heston struggles to swing into the cockpit on a bungee cord dangling from a high-speed helicopter.

This is just one of those magic moments in cinema that most people would call needlessly stupid, yet for airline enthusiasts, it's pure ecstasy. Airlines and airports have been used as settings for countless movies, providing a dramatic backdrop for great films like “Casablanca.” But with all the glorious movies made about air travel airline enthusiasts often seem to remember the bad ones most of all, if for nothing else then the camp appeal.

Skyjack Magazine, a fanzine I founded about air travel that ran from 1993 to 1997, published an ongoing series of articles about these fantastic movies, under the banner “More Movies the Airlines Won’t Show You.”

At a time when current news has caused us more concern about aviation safety, these movies also provide much-needed humorous relief.

In case you’ve forgotten some of these much-revered films (both good and bad), I’m bringing them back from the archives. To start, here's a brief roundup of 12 of the most noteworthy airline disaster movies and dramas set aboard airline flights. Whether you’re a movie fan, an airline enthusiast, a travel addict or just someone who enjoys campy entertainment, you’ll probably find something worth streaming in this list.

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Alrplane! (1980): The all-time great send-up of airplane disaster movies, it borrowed most heavily from “Zero Hour” and “Airport 1975” for its laughs. Some of it hasn’t aged well and is inappropriate given today’s diversity and sensitivity standards, but there are still some excellent moments. Don't call me Shirley.

Airplane II: The Sequel (1982): A bit disappointing after the first one, but it was a hard act to follow.

Airport (1970): A landmark airline disaster/Grand Hotel-type movie results when a planeload of stars packs into a Trans Global Airlines 707 for the ride of their life. In actuality, both of the 707 planes you see in the movie (the one flying and the one stuck in the snow) were the same aircraft; after appearing in the movie, the aircraft went on to several owners and eventually was totaled when it crashed in Brazil in 1980, killing dozens of people.

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Airport 1975 (1974): Stupid and predictable, this movie is unintentionally hilarious. Gloria Swanson's last film. You'll want to smack Helen Reddy.

Airport '77 (1977): Lee Grant shines as a biter, alcoholic wife trapped thousands of feet underwater with Brenda Vaccaro and others aboard a luxuriously appointed private 747. It sounds implausible, but it’s rather entertaining.

Back from Eternity (1956): A so-so remake of “Five Came Back,” this time with Robert Ryan and Anita Ekberg in a dramatic tale of a mobster, his henchman and a bunch of other passengers and crew stranded in a South American jungle after their plane makes an emergency landing.

Blazing Stewardesses (1975): The best part of watching this movie is being able to say you’ve seen a movie called “Blazing Stewardesses” that wasn’t pornographic. Yvonne DeCarlo of “The Munsters” runs a boot camp for young female flight attendants. This movie is also known as Texas Layover.

Boeing Boeing (1965): Over-the-top sexism and multinational stewardesses in really cool uniforms are the key to this comedy starring Jerry Lewis and Tony Curtis. Thelma Ritter provides additional wit as the wise-cracking housekeeper (wasn’t she wise-cracking in every role?).

Coffee, Tea or Me? (1973): Can Karen Valentine manage two husbands and a demanding career as a flight attendant? John Davidson wants to know, too.

The Concorde: Airport '79 (1979): In this final (?) "Airport" installment, you've got Charo, Jimmie Walker, and Avery Schreiber to keep you company aboard an ill-fated supersonic airliner. And of course, George Kennedy, the only person to star in every one of the “Airport” movies (and in this one, he treats us to a nude love scene; just what the public was hankering for, I’m sure).

Crash (1978): TV dramatization of a real-life Eastern L-1011 crash in the Florida everglades, with William Shatner and Adrienne Barbeau in starring roles. See also “The Ghost of Flight 401,” which is a more interesting retelling.

Crash Landing (1958): Future first lady Nancy Davis (Reagan) stars in her final movie role about an airliner — a Transatlantic DC-7C, although it was based on a true incident for a Pan Am flight — doomed to plunge into the ocean. Just say no.

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From the pages of Skyjack Magazine, a fanzine “for gay people who fly" founded by travel writer Mark Chesnut. Skyjack was published from 1993 to 1997 — and was filled with airline nostalgia, airline and travel humor, insider reports and travel tips from people in the airline industry, strange and funny airline experiences and airline news, Skyjack also aimed to celebrate the connection between air travel and pop culture, showcasing how air travel has been used in books, movies, TV and music.