08/02/2025
I watched a old movie this week on YouTube. Doomsday Flight by Rod Serling. For you youngsters out there Rod Serling wrote for television as well and if you are old enough you might remember The Twilight Zone. Doomsday flight begins with a nut case putting a package in the pilot's briefcase, which was left unattended at the ticket counter for a few minutes. The pilot carries it into the cockpit.
After the plane takes off the crazy man calls the airport and tells them he has placed a bomb on the plane. He describes the bomb as 2 sticks of dynamite,some batteries a detonator, with an aneroid trigger mechanism. Controlled by barometric pressure it has two switches. One arms the bomb when the plane reaches a certain altitude and the lower air pressure trips the first trigger which arms the bomb and when the plane descends to around 2,000 feet the increased air pressure triggers the second switch and the bomb goes off. Crew and airline officials go crazy trying to find the bomb, searching carry on luggage and tearing up the interior of the plane in the process. At this point the plane is at 37,000 feet altitude.
The nutcase is demanding a hundred thousand dollars to tell where the bomb is hidden. Airline agrees, gets the cash together but there is a traffic accident and the delivery truck burns up with the money.
Everyone except the nutcase is frantic by now as the plane is going to eventually run out of fuel.
The nutcase gets drunk in a bar and decides he doesn't want the money after all and has the bartender call the airport, FBI shows up at the the bar to find the nutcase dead from a heart attack. Suspense drama that had me laughing at them through most of the movie.
They resolved the issue when the plane had just enough fuel to get to an airport that sits 5,000 feet up in the mountains.
Here's the punch line. There is an airport sized plot hole that runs through the entire story. Have you spotted it? Here's a hint. The pilot has the briefcase in the cockpit with him, the only place they didn't look for the bomb. The bomb would not explode even if they had just turned the plane around and landed. Why not?
