After their pilot dies unexpectedly mid-flight, Doug White (Dennis Quaid) has to safely land the plane and save his entire family from insurmountable danger.
After a small-town pilot mysteriously dies during flight, passenger Doug White is forced to land the plane to safety and save his entire family on board. Based on an astonishing true story of faith and survival, follows one man's harrowing journey to save his family from insurmountable danger.—United Artists Releasing
Doug is shown taking a flying class with instructor Rick (Mark Rowe) and brother Jeff. Doug is very wobbly on his approach and has a hard time in landing the plane. Eventually, the instructor has to take over the plane and land it as Doug was about to stall it.
Doug White (Dennis Quaid) had come back after participating in a barbecue "cookoff" competition with his brother, and he had an extremely good time with his family members. Doug and Jeff worked well together as a team, and Terri's sauce was a major hit with the judges. The family ended up winning the competition.Doug was shocked when he got the news of his brother's demise because he had just met him, and Jeffrey (Brett Rice) had been doing great. Jeffrey had suffered a heart attack, and Doug had started questioning everything he believed in. He had first lost his father, and now his brother, and he had started feeling that God had abandoned him.The family travels to Naples for Jeff's funeral.
Terri (Heather Graham), Doug's wife, kept on telling him that God would always be there for him, but her words didn't have any effect on Doug. Doug, Terri, and their two daughters, Bailey (Abigail Rhyne) and Maggie (Jessi Case), were flying back home from Marco Island Executive Airport in Naples, and they had decided to take a private flight.Joe (Wilbur Fitzgerald), the pilot of the plane, knew Doug from before, and Terri, just to cheer up her husband, asked Joe to do something to elevate his mood. Joe called Doug to come and sit next to him and be his co-pilot. Call sign of the flight is King Air N559DW.Doug had driven a Cessna once, but it was probably the worst experience of his life. Jeff had told him sarcastically that he should find another hobby if he didn't want anybody to get killed due to his driving skills.
A few minutes after the flight took off, Joe probably had a seizure and died on the spot. Doug was horrified to see that, and for a moment, his brain got fuzzy, and he froze in his position. Terri and the kids started panicking when they saw that the pilot had died, and they pulled his body out of his chair. Terri sat next to Doug, and with negligible flying experience under their belts, both of them knew that they had to find a way to make a successful landing.
Doug switched on the radio communication so that he could get some sort of assistance from the air traffic control towers. Miami Centre was the first to hear about what had happened, and Ellis Ross (Brandon Quinn), the supervisor, instantly realized the kind of critical situation they had on their hands. Ellis immediately went to his colleague, Lisa Grimm (Selena Anduze), whom he thought to be the best fit for communicating with Doug.Lisa was probably the only person with some pilot experience, and Ellis wanted her to use her expertise and help Doug as much as she could.Doug reports that his autopilot is on and that his plane is in a steady climb. Soon, the plane will be high enough to lose oxygen and the passengers will fall unconscious and hence the climb needs to be stopped. Lisa gets Doug to turn off the autopilot and fly the plane manually.
At that point, Lisa, Ellis, and all the others didn't believe that the odds favored them. They were trying their best to guide Doug, but they knew from the very beginning that it was a lost cause. Lisa brings Doug down to 11,000 feet.They hand Doug over to the Fort Myers traffic control tower, and that's when Doug came in contact with Brian Nortan (E. Roger Mitchell) and Dan Favio (Rocky Myers).Dan was out late the previous night drinking and was nursing a monster hangover. His supervisor Ralph knew that Dan could be fired on the spot for having alcohol in his system, and since Ralph vouched for him, his judgment would be questioned.
Dan knew the only way they could stand a chance of safely landing the plane was when Doug was guided by someone who had actually piloted the plane he was in. Dan called his friend Kari (Jesse Metcalfe), as he knew about his exceptional flying skills, and asked him to help him out. Kari had experience of flying a King Air for 8400 hours.
Kari's girlfriend Ashley (Anna Enger Ritch) told him that he could probably be Doug's simulator and talk him through the instructions, but he was skeptical about the plan, and he didn't know how well it would work. Dan risked his job by calling Kari, as it was against the law to use a mobile phone inside the control tower, but he knew that they couldn't afford to go by the book when there were lives at stake.
Ralph (Joe Knezevich), the supervisor of the Fort Myers tower, also realized that they didn't have any option other than to loop in Kari, though he knew that they would have to answer to the authorities for breaking federal laws.
The plane is coming in with a full tank, which means that there is threat of a fire if it crashes. The plane was diverted over the ocean and is told to turn back to attempt a landing, as instructed by Kari.Doug tried landing once but was unsuccessful, as there were unprecedented crosswinds that swayed him off his course. He was hovering around the runway, and to make matters worse, there was a storm coming his way.Kari had lost his family, who had been stuck in a similar situation as Doug's, and he still bore the guilt of not being able to help their cause. Kari assured Dough that he was going to land the plane even if the odds didn't seem in his favor.Kari lost contact with Dan at the tower and called Doug's mobile on the plane directly.
At that moment, Doug leaves everything to the almighty. He closed his eyes, kept hearing Kari's voice, and did as he was told without thinking about what was going to happen the very next moment. Doug was able to land the plane successfully. Even he couldn't believe what he had been able to achieve. The family was in tears, and the near-death experience made them realize how unpredictable life was and how necessary it was to savor each and every moment, as you never knew what the future had in store for you.After the incident, Doug completes his pilot certification on multi-engine aircraft and flew several relief missions to Haiti, Belize and missions for the Veterans Airlift Command.
