A bomber on board an airplane, an airport almost closed by snow, and various personal problems of the people involved.
This precursor to later "epic" 1970s disaster films presents 12 hours in the lives of the personnel and passengers at the "Lincoln Airport." Endless problems, professional and personal, are thrown at the various personnel responsible for the safe and proper administration of air traffic, airline management, and aviation at a major US airport. Take one severe snowstorm, add multiple schedules gone awry; one elderly Trans Global Airlines stowaway; shortages; an aging, meretricious pilot; unreasonable, peevish spouses; manpower issues, fuel problems, frozen runways; and equipment malfunctions, and you get just a sample of the obstacles faced by weary, disgruntled personnel and passengers at the Lincoln Airport. Toss in one long-suffering pilot's wife, several stubborn men, office politics and romance, and one passenger with a bomb, and you have the film "Airport" from 1970.—LA-Lawyer
Mel Bakersfeld, the general manager of a Chicago-area airport, must contend with a massive snowstorm and other issues, both work-related and personal, while the troubled D.O. Guerrero threatens to blow up an airliner. As pilot Vernon Demerest attempts to calm Guerrero down and dissuade him from setting off explosives on the plane, tensions increase in the air and on the ground, and danger is imminent.—Jwelch5742
The worst snowstorm in six years, it covering all of the northeast US and eastern Canada, is exacerbating all the problems in Mel Bakersfeld's life, he the General Manager of Lincoln International Airport in Chicago. The biggest problem caused by the storm is a Boeing 707 jet being stuck in the field effectively closing down runway two-niner, the longest of the two at the facility. Mel has had to call in expert engineer Joe Patroni on his day off to deal with that issue. But the snow is only highlighting the many other operational problems at the aging airport, his biggest critic being pilot Vernon Demerest, who just happens to be his philandering brother-in-law. Mel's sister, Sarah Demerest, knows that Vern will one day settle down to a stable home life with her, she unaware that he and current steady girlfriend, flight attendant Gwen Meighen, the two among the on-board crew of Trans Global Airlines (TGA) "Golden Argosy" Flight 2 to Rome this evening, necessarily evaluating their relationship based on some unexpected developments. The snow also focuses more of Mel's attention on work this evening, he and his wife, Cindy Bakersfeld, who are already continually arguing about he placing home second to work. Mel can admit to himself that his excuses not to go home on the best of days is due in part to his relationship with TGA customer service agent, widowed Tanya Livingston, it still at the platonic stage despite their professed attraction to each other. The issues at the airport itself take a back seat upon news from that Rome destined flight. While they knew of chronic Los Angeles residing stowaway, aged Ada Quonsett, on the flight, she always trying to find the most expedient and free way to visit her daughter in New York, which this time includes this flight to Rome, the flight and ground crews have credible suspicions that passenger D.O. Guerrero is packing a bomb in the attaché case he is keeping close to his person. Not wanting to cause a panic, they all have to find a way to make an emergency landing, which, due to the snow, may make Lincoln and runway two-niner the most viable option, that is if they get that far without Guerrero setting off the bomb and if Patroni can clear the runway of the stuck jet.—Huggo
The general manager of the Lincoln Airport in Chicago, Mel Bakersfeld, is having a troubled night due to a blizzard. A Boeing 707 is stuck in the snow and blocking the two-niner lane to other flights. His friend Joe Patroni is trying to clear the lane. Mel is also facing personal problems with his wife, Cindy Bakersfeld, who wants him to quit his job and work with her father. The arrogant but efficient Captain Vernon Demerest is married with Mel's sister but is having an affair with the stewardess Gwen Meighen, who tells him that she is pregnant of him. Mel's assistant Tanya Livingston, who is in love with Mel, is having problem with the stowaway Ada Quonsett, an old con-artist that uses to travel for free luring the attendants. Meanwhile, the down-to luck D.O. Guerrero hires a life insurance to his wife and travels with a bomb inside his briefcase. Ada flees from the clerk that is taking care of her and embarks to Rome and sits side-by-side with Guerrero. Soon the airport people learns that Guerrero might be a bomber and the control tells Vernon that he might be transporting a bomber. He needs to set in motion a plan to save passengers and crew.—Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The story takes place during one long night during a sudden blizzard at Lincoln International, a fictional Chicago airport based very loosely on O'Hare International Airport.
The action mainly centers on Mel Bakersfeld (Burt Lancaster), the airport general manager. His devotion to his job is tearing apart his family and his marriage to his constantly angry and domineering wife Cindy (Dana Wynter), who resents his use of his job at the airport as a device to avoid going to various after-hours events she wants him to participate in, as she attempts to climb into the social circles of Chicago's elite. His problems in his marriage are further exacerbated by his romantically-charged friendship with a lovely divorcee, Trans America Airlines (TAA) passenger relations manager Tanya Livingston (Jean Seberg).
The movie centers on Bakersfeld's struggles to keep the airport open during the snowstorm. His chief problem is the unexpected closure of primary runway 29, caused when a landing airliner turns off past the wrong side of a taxiway marker light, missing the taxiway, and burying the plane's landing gears in the snow, blocking the runway. Bakersfield is forced to call upon Joe Patroni (George Kennedy), the tough and practical head of maintenance operations for Trans World Airlines, at Lincoln. Patroni is told to move the disabled aircraft blocking the runway 29. Patroni spends the rest of the movie with his men to dig the plane out of the snow and fights with the pilots to do so under the aircraft's own power without damaging it.
Meanwhile, Bakersfield deals with his brother-in-law Vern Demerest (Dean Martin), a pompous and self-confident senior pilot for Trans Global Airlines (TGA) who opposes Bakersfield on a number of issues involving business and personal issues. Both Mel Bakersfield and his sister Sarah (Barbara Hale are unaware that Vern is having an extramarital affair with Gwen Meighen (Jacqueline Bisset), a chief stewardess on his routine flights who is planning her latest trip to Rome, Italy and is frustrated about her secret affair with Vern, who keeps telling her that he will leave his wife.
Back at Lincoln Airport, the closing of runway 29 due to the stuck plane requires the use of the shorter runway 22, which has the unfortunate consequence of causing planes to take off over a noise-sensitive suburb, whose residents picket the airport in protest. Mel Bakersfield insists that the airport stay open despite pressure from the owner and the mayor to close it for the night.
A little later, the airport authorities arrest an elderly lady named Mrs. Ada Quonsett (Helen Hayes) who is attempting to board a plane without a ticket. Ada is brought to the TGA lounge office where he and Tanya discover her to be a frequent stowaway who has a long record of stowing away aboard cross-country flights and passing herself off as the "poor little-old lady" to get away with it. Mrs. Quonsett is put in the custody of a TGA agent to be put on a flight back to her home in California, but she gives him the slip.
Back at the airport, Patroni and his men have dug out the snow from the stuck airplane's landing gear and are attempting to move it. Despite Patroni's orders to use full power, the pilot refuses to do so, for fear it would damage it, and the plane only moves a few feet before getting stuck in the snow again, after which Patroni and the pilot get into a very heated argument. Patroni then tells Bakersfield they have to dig deeper and put lumber under the wheels for added support, and after another heated argument between Bakersfield and the pilot, Bakersfield agrees to let Patroni taxi the airplane out next time, as Patroni is licensed to taxi.
Meanwhile, D.O. Guerrero (Van Heflin) is an increasingly psychologically-disturbed, bankrupt building contractor and demolitions expert, who is determined to find a way to solve his financial problems, regardless of what it will cost others. He builds a bomb that fits inside his briefcase with the intention of using it to commit suicide by blowing up a Rome-bound Boeing 707 Intercontinental jet over the Atlantic Ocean so his wife Inez (Maureen Stapleton), who manages a seedy diner, can collect on the $225,000 insurance policy (which he plans to buy at the airport prior to his departure) since a plane crashing in the ocean leaves no trace of evidence for the insurance company to investigate his death. He leaves their apartment, stops at the diner to say goodbye to his wife, and then leaves on the ruse that he intends to take a bus to Milwaukee to start a new job, but the bus is actually bound for the airport. When Inez arrives home, she finds a special delivery letter from the travel agency that issued his plane ticket; they accidentally overcharged Guerrero for the ticket, so there was a partial refund check enclosed with the letter. Confused, she heads to the airport.
Gwen and Vern arrive at Lincoln to board their Flight 2 to Rome and she tells him that she just learned that she's pregnant. As the plane begins to board, Ada stows away on plane and sits next to Guerrero who is behaving nervously, holding his briefcase (with the bomb in it) on his lap, intending to detonate it once the plane is over the ocean.
After the plane takes off, Guerroero's wife arrives too late at the airport and goes into a state of shock. When she is brought to the security office after she is found wondering around, she manages to tell them about her husband and what he intends to do. Bakersfield learns about this and has Flight 2 contacted to inform Vernon as well as Captain Harris (Barry Nelson) about the bomb on board. Also learning that Ada is on board the flight and sitting next to Guerrero, Bakersfield contacts Vernon on board the flight to turn the plane around back for Chicago.
As the plane is being turned around, Gwen approaches Ada, loudly exposing her as a stowaway while ignoring Guerrero, in a ruse to bring her to the cockpit, where Ada is let in on what is going on. Ada agrees to help create a diversion. When she is brought back to her seat by Gwen, Vern appears and attempts to lunge at Guerrero who figures out what is going on and stands up out of his seat. Gwen manages to grab the briefcase, but another grumpy passenger, thinking they are wrongly grabbing "personal property", grabs it from Gwen and gives it back to Guerrero. Vern tries to persuade Guerrero not to trigger the bomb since everyone on the ground has figured out his plot and canceled his insurance. For a moment Guerrero looked like he was going to surrender, but another passenger comes out of the lavatory, and that same grumpy passenger yells, "Grab him, he's got a bomb!!", startling Guerrero, who runs into the lavatory and detonates the bomb. The detonation blows a large hole in the plane, killing Guerrero and seriously injuring Gwen. The plane is structurally damaged in the explosion and subsequent rapid decompression, forcing the pilot to put the plane into a dive, in order to get below 10,000 feet as quickly as possible, in order to get to breathable air before the passenger oxygen runs out.
As Flight 2 returns to Lincoln, Vern realizes the longer runway 29 is still closed and runway 22 is too short to handle the landing of the damaged plane. After a heated argument with Air Traffic Control, which Bakersfield also hears, he realizes the seriousness of the situation that Flight 2 desperately needs to land at runway 29, which still has the stuck-in-the-snow plane on the runway. Patroni and his men are still trying to dig the plane out of the snow and after Bakersfield tells him about the emergency, he goes into the cockpit and attempts to rev up the engines to free the plane, which after few tense moments, Patroni finally manages to do so without damaging the runway or the plane.
After a harrowing flight back, Vern along with the other Captain, manages to land the plane on newly reopened runway 29, using the entire length of the runway, and save the rest of the passengers and crew. After everyone had disembarked, he decides to accompany the badly injured Gwen to the hospital where his wife sees him and becomes aware of his affair. He has decided to leave his wife to be with Gwen.
After Mrs. Ada Quonsett is cleared of all criminal charges of stowing away, she is given a first class ticket to return to her hometown.
His marriage over, Mel Bakersfield asks Tanya if she would like to "have breakfast" at her apartment with him, and she happily agrees.
