Airport 1975

Airport 1975 is an American disaster thriller set largely in the air, as a Boeing 747 on a flight from Washington to Los Angeles is diverted toward Salt Lake City because of bad weather. A small private plane, its pilot incapacitated, collides with the airliner's cockpit, killing or wounding the flight crew and leaving the cabin crew and passengers to cope with a damaged jet that no one qualified is flying. Flight attendant Nancy Pryor takes the controls, while on the ground Alan Murdock, a former test pilot and her boyfriend, tries to guide her by radio through keeping the aircraft aloft and bringing it down safely. Among those aboard are a nun and a steadily more difficult businessman.

Jack Smight directed the film, which followed his 1973 version of Double Indemnity and preceded Midway and Damnation Alley. Don Ingalls wrote the screenplay, William Frye produced, and the large credited cast of 78 includes Charlton Heston, Karen Black, George Kennedy, Efrem Zimbalist Jr., Susan Clark and Helen Reddy. Made for around 3 million dollars, it returned roughly 103 million worldwide, a striking multiple of its cost.

Audience response has been moderate: on IMDb it sits at 5.8 from about 13,000 votes, and on TMDB at 5.8 from just over 300. A critics' rating of 5 out of 10 from 22 reviews places professional opinion close to that audience level, with neither group treating it as more than routine entertainment.