Goofs for
Flight of the Phoenix (2004)

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• Continuity: After the crash when Kelly is resting on the side of a sand dune and hears two shots behind her, it is still daytime. When the others take a look, it is nighttime as you can see some stars behind them in the sky and of course the darkness about them. They seemed to be eager to go, yet it couldn't have taken them that long to get up there. When Rodney gets shot it's still nighttime, yet when they bring him back to the plane afterward it's like midday.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: The wind outside after the crash is said to be 70 mph, but just before the planes topped we saw clear weather and the dust cloud form the crash hardly moving in the wind.
  
  
• Continuity: The plane's radio aerial which is torn off prior to the crash cannot be seen in any of the shots of the plane before it is torn off.
  
  

• Continuity: Jeremy's eye patch alternates between very dirty and sweaty to fairly clean looking during several points in the movie.
  
  
• Continuity: After the crash, the crew poke a hole in the top of the plane to let in some air because the plane is totally covered by sand. Yet during the burial in the next scene the plane is mostly uncovered.
  
  
• Continuity: When Rodney gets shot, he is shot on the right side of his chest. However, when they lay him on the cargo box and tear his shirt to reveal it, the wound is on the left side of his chest.
  
  
• Continuity: When Elliot is first introduced, Towns is wearing his jacket. But the reverse shot, Towns is wearing a short-sleeved shirt and no jacket.
  
  
• Continuity: When the plane is crashing, only one wheel has been torn off in some shots and in other shots both wheels have been torn off.
  
  
• Factual errors: The camels used in the film are Dromedary camels. The camels used in the Gobi desert are Bactrian camels.
  
  
• Factual errors: If the "nomads" / arms dealers had been using the crash victim's body for target practice (as suggested by the captain), the spent shells would have been found near where the shooters had been standing - not near the body as depicted in the film.
  
  
• Factual errors: Though the C-119 used in this film is a direct descendant of the C-82 used in the original, the engines of the C-119 were started by power from an APU, not using the Coffman cartridge start system of the original.
  
  
• Miscellaneous: When I leave my car out on a fairly sunny day, the metal parts of the seatbelt and the outside of the car become very hot. The temperatures and sunlight in this condition is nowhere near that of the Gobi Desert. There is no way they would be touching and sitting on the metal plane that had been sitting in the desert exposed to the blazing sun for weeks.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the left engine fails, the torque gauge falls well below zero instead of stopping on it. A short time later, the hydraulic gauge is shown also to drop below zero, and actually spins down below the 4000 and 3000 PSI marks.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The Captain is hailed as an extraordinary pilot who manages to save an aircraft that "not many pilots could save". However, at the time of the initial engine failure, he takes absolutely no action to shut down the engine or to feather the propeller.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the propeller comes off of the shaft, it is shown to "fly forward" fifteen or so feet and lodge in the side of the aircraft just behind the pilot's seat. This does not happen in actuality. The torque of the propeller may move it sideways into the fuselage, but it can not progress forward. On all more recent propeller driven military aircraft with wing mounted engines and a cargo area, there is a red line painted on the exterior of the aircraft to denote this point. There is also a corresponding red line painted on the interior of the fuselage abeam the prop to delineate a "no standing area" safety in case the prop were to separate from the shaft and spin into the cabin. The outside red line is clearly visible in the exterior shots.
  
  
• Factual errors: When the rear cargo doors come off after hitting the terrain, the contents of the cabin, as well as a passenger, are shown to be violently 'sucked out'. The aircraft is not pressurized, so this could not be due to a great pressure differential between the cabin and the outside atmosphere. The mere fact that the door is open does not create a massive suction or draft, as is evident by military cargo and paratroop drops made from rear exit aircraft. Thus, while it might get noisy, and things might get shaken out, they would not get sucked out in this manner.
  
  
• Factual errors: If the outside surface wind were indeed between seventy and one-hundred miles per hour as stated, the C-119 would almost be at a standstill at touchdown. Even with a relatively greater than normal airspeed speed, the wind the aircraft is facing into would reduce the planes groundspeed by that amount. In spite of this massive wind, the aircraft touches down at a high rate of speed and slides along for a considerable distance.
  
  
• Factual errors: The passengers in the back are shown during the dive and roll sequence as having a tremendous amount of wind blowing on their faces as if they were subjected to a wind blast from the front. The forward cabin is intact, so this would not happen.
  
  
• Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When speaking to Elliot, Captain Towns refers to the engine as having "more than 2,000 pounds of thrust". The C-119 has reciprocating radial engines, which are not rated in pounds of thrust as jet engines are. The C-119 had either the Pratt & Whitney R-4360-20 engine producing 3,500 Horsepower, or the Wright Cyclone 3350-85 engine producing 2,500 horsepower. No professional pilot would confuse the two.
  
  

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