Corrected entry: When the plane flies upside down over the apartments it is very low, looks just above the rooftops. When it crashes it does so from a lot higher.
Corrected entry: At the beginning of the flight, Whip says to the co-pilot that he is heading for a black line - good weather - between two violent areas. Problem is: there is no black line.
Correction: He says "sliver of black between those two ugly clouds." There is a negative space on the weather radar between the clouds, which he points to.
Corrected entry: During both the takeoff and (crash) landing sequences, the altimeter is shown close to an altitude of zero. An aircraft altimeter is always set so that "0" represents sea level, not the local ground level.
Correction: Nope, the altimeter can be set to either ground level or sea level. Common practice is sea level, but it's pilots' discretion. In fact, pilots receive in-route weather reports in a standard format that includes BOTH barometric settings - one for elevation above mean sea level (information code QNH), and one for altitude for the airfield of interest (information code QNH).
Correction: I reviewed the clips, and didn't see what you described. Height of Orlando MCO airport is only 96 feet above sea level, so the altimeter looks OK there. The last shot of the altimeter before the crash is 1000 feet and the scenery seems to match. The ATC also radios that they are passing 1000 feet - check. And the radar altimeter is calling out terrain at 60, 50, 40... just before the crash. Don't think this is a mistake.
Corrected entry: When Whip first returns to his family farm, he collects the alcohol bottles next to the stereo, one of which is a Hennessy bottle, and dumps all the liquor. Days later when he is drunk in his chair watching home videos, there, next to the stereo behind him, lies the same bottle of Hennessy.
Corrected entry: When Whip finishes his walk-around, he meets his First Officer and asks: "have we met before?" or something like that. In real life, you meet your crew in the crew room, give them a thorough briefing, so when you go to an airplane, you already know the people you're going to work with. That's the place you introduce yourself, not the flight deck. It's impossible to meet your FO on the flight deck without having met him first in the briefing room.
Correction: When I was a regional Captain, I almost never went to the crew room as it was out of the way. I almost always met my FOs at the plane for the six years that I was there. It's even worse during reserves as you may fly with several different FOs, or FAs in the same day. I now work cargo, and it doesn't happen as much, but occasionally still happens if, for example, timed out or became fatigued. They would bring a fresh crew member out to me.
Corrected entry: As stated at the hearing at the end of the film, the plane went into a dive because the flaps on the tail came loose then jammed in the down position, from which the pilot could not recover. Turning the plane upside down would reverse the problem and put it into a steep climb. The pilot would not be able to fly upside down in a straight line then roll it over and glide - as soon as the plane was rolled over it would go straight into the steep dive again.
Correction: There are no flaps on the tail section of an airplane. Flaps are an aerodynamic device on the main wing that allow the wing to increase lift and induced drag during the landing and takeoff phases of flight. There are 4 moving panels on the tail of the MD88 (close enough for movie accuracy). The elevator is used to control pitch but is not actually controlled by the pilot, the pilot actually controls a control tab or anti-servo tab that moves the opposite direction, which through aerodynamic pressures will move the elevator itself. There are also two additional tabs on the elevator, the anti-float tab (to provide a better feel of pressure to the yoke since the pilot is actually controlling a very small panel, and would otherwise be easy to over control), and the geared tab which moves with the stabilizer trim (to preserve a balanced feel across different configurations). The stabilizer trim moves the entire elevator assembly through a range of angles of attack. So, it is possible for the stabilizer trim to "runaway" or to be stuck in the full forward of aft position, but still have full control of the elevator, via the control tab. Even with the stab trim locked, the geared tab could still be functional and be controlled with pitch trim. The movie as presented, although unlikely, is actually possible, from an airliner and aerodynamic perspective.
Corrected entry: When Nicky comes home, her door is broken into and the building manger is inside, saying he has every right to be there. Well, if he does, as building manager, wouldn't he have a key and so no have need to smash the door in?
Correction: There is no evidence that he "smashed the door in". When Nicky gets to the door she goes to unlock it and notices it is not completely closed and opens the door to show the manager inside. There is no broken frame or debris on the floor to support that he used force to gain entry.
Corrected entry: When Nicky comes home to smoke her drug, she parks her car behind the farthest car in the street. The gate to her apartment building is initially much farther away than when she gets out of her car and walks through it.
Correction: You can see she parks her car so the back is just past the gate and walkway. When she gets out, she goes around the back of her car, right to the gate and walkway.
Corrected entry: At the funeral scene, when Margaret and Whip are conversing, Margaret has no scar when they first approach each other and as they begin to interact with each other. A very large scar across her right cheek appears with steristrips (tape) on it as well as a scab under her eyebrow, towards the end of their conversation.
Correction: She has a scar on her left cheek that you can see when they are first hugging. Towards the end of their conversation they have switched sides and the cheek with the scar is now closest to camera, and you can see it a lot better.
Corrected entry: When the film starts, the pilots have pieces of paper on the yoke in front of them, but when the emergency starts Whip's papers are no longer there.
Correction: As the film shows, he takes that paper and puts it under his glasses to nap.
Corrected entry: In the beginning in the hotel room, to wake himself up, Whip snorts a long line of cocaine. At first Whip is on the bed and the cocaine is on the bedside table, but when he finishes snorting the bedside table has moved away from the bed and Whip is now kneeling on the floor.
Correction: There is no cocaine on the beside table - you can see that when he picks up his phone. Then, when he goes to snort, you can see him slide off the bed, past the bedside table (that has the lamp on it) to a second, black table.
Corrected entry: When Whip pulls up to his ex-wife's house, he parks extremely close to a fire hydrant. When he steps out of the car which is filmed from another angle, the fire hydrant is gone. (01:37:30)
Correction: The fire hydrant is there but right on the edge of the screen - you can just see it.
Corrected entry: Under takeoff and climb, you can hear the engines constantly revving up, starting from the runway and all the way through the rainstorm, when they really should have max and constant rpm long before they actually lift off the ground.
Correction: Modern jetliners do not need to reach max thrust before a takeoff. A reduced thrust takeoff is a takeoff that is accomplished utilizing less thrust than the engines are capable of producing under the existing conditions of temperature and pressure altitude. Rationale AOM limitations, the runway specific criteria of length, altitude and obstacles factored against the actual aircraft weight and existing environmental conditions allow the calculation of the actual amount of thrust necessary to meet regulatory requirements for takeoff. In a significant percentage of cases, the required thrust is less than that which the engines are capable of producing. Advantages The primary advantage to a reduced thrust takeoff is cost savings through increased engine life and reduced overhaul costs. Secondary advantages include fuel savings and that, under certain circumstances, it may be possible to increase the maximum takeoff weight for a specific runway by using a reduced thrust profile.
Your reply is correct in every respect about the max thrust comment, but the mistake has to do with the sound of the engines continuing to increase in pitch for an excessively long time - in this movie about 3 minutes. That would never happen. The engine noise is probably a tool used by the film-maker to build suspense throughout the scene.
Correction: "Looks like" observations are hard to prove, but here's my experience. I fly MD-88s for a discount airline in Florida and live in an apartment nearby. I know that the most common approach I fly is 1000 AGL when I fly over my apartment. Occasionally my girlfriend watches my landings from there. We saw this movie together, and afterwards she said "That plane in the movie looked just like your plane flying over, except for the little pointy things on the ends of the wings (wing-lets)... and it was upside down!" Thanks, Dixie. They got it right. Case closed.