Trans-Coast Airways Flight 60 leaves Los Angeles on a flight to Washington, D.C. Three scientists on board the transcontinental flight have been summoned to a classified meeting at the Pentagon, concerning the "beta bomb", a new bomb design and the rocket to deliver it. Mid-flight, the Douglas DC-6 airliner mysteriously begins to climb, to over 10 miles high. Back at the airline headquarters, Operations Manager Hank Norton (John Bryant) tries to keep in contact with the flight, but is sure that nothing can be done to save the passengers and crew.
The engines stop, and passengers pass out due to lack of oxygen. Crazed passenger Walter Cooper (Harvey Stephens) who has tried to convince others that using the secret bomb is essential, jumps from the aircraft. Three scientists, Dr. Carl Morris (Dayton Lummis), Tom Endicott (Craig Hill) and Marcia Paxton (Paula Raymond) find themselves in a limbo state, watches stopped and no heartbeats.
Meeting the Examiner (Gregory Morton), the trio of scientists leave the aircraft for judgement from those of the future. They find themselves in a moment between time, which explains the stopped watches and lack of heartbeats. They are shown, in brief, a future where their bomb has been used and having destroyed the atmosphere, has killed off all life on the planet. They are judged guilty and sentenced to live in the moment with no time for the rest of eternity, where the future and past meet.
After the Sage (Addison Richards) objects that the scientists from the past cannot be judged by a future society, they are returned to the present on this technicality. The passengers have no memory of any of the actions on board before passing out, with the exception of Endicott, the rocket engineer and Dr. Morris. Marcia Paxton only thinks that the event was a dream. Walter Cooper reappears, and the flight crew do not seem to have any recall of the emergency that took place on the flight.
When Captain Hank Norton (John Bryant) calls for landing instructions, the airline office is perplexed. When their airliner lands at Washington, the passengers and crew discover that they are 24 hours late, thus proving Endicott's fantastic story of the trial and judgement. Dr. Morris, the nuclear bomb designer, disposes of his notebook containing the formulas and designs for the bomb.
Conceived as a low-budget “message” film concerning “the perils of the nuclear arms race,” director LeBorg was compelled to use stock footage for depictions of thermonuclear war.[3]
The inflight scenes of The Flight That Disappeared were photographed in a studio-made airliner fuselage, passenger section, lounge and cockpit section, while background scenes were shot at Los Angeles Airport.[4][Note 1] The 2 by 2 seating is correct, but the single aisle is wider than on the prototype, possibly to facilitate camera work.The picture was shot in eight days, “remarkable for a feature made in the 1960s.”[5]
The project was made at the nadir of LeBorg’s career; he did not regard The Flight That Disappeared to be a genuine assignment: “I guess I just didn’t get a film…I couldn’t even get an agent.”[6]
Reception
TV Guide gave the film two stars out of four, writing that The Flight That Disappeared becomes "more relevant with time".[7] Aviation film historian Stephen Pendo, in his critique of this low-budget film, wrote, "The incredible plot makes the film all but unwatchable",[8] and the poster showing a "jetliner" didn't help matters.
The Flight That Disappeared recouped its production costs at the box office, and garnered a small profit, then “vanished almost immediately after its initial release.”[9]
^Dixon, 1992 p. 4: “...more properly classified as a silent fiction film.”
^Dixon, 1992 p. 35: Stock footage and “a few sparse sets” were used to depict “the scenes of nuclear devastation.” And p. 110: LeBorg reported that he had worked with writers Ralph and Judith Hart and Owen Harris on the script.
^Dixon, 1992 p. 36, p. 110: Here shooting days reported as ten.
^Dixon, 1992 p. 109: From April 8, 1988 interview with Dixon at University of Nebraska. LeBorg: “I didn’t get an assignment...They [the studios] forgot me.” And p. 110: LeBorg, asked if he “particularly liked” the film, replied “Yes, I liked it.”
Pendo, Stephen. Aviation in the Cinema. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1985. ISBN0-8-1081-746-2.
Warren, Bill. Keep Watching The Skies, American Science Fiction Movies of the 1950s, Vol II: 1958 - 1962 (covers late 1950s movies not released until the early 1960s). Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland & Company, 1986. ISBN0-89950-032-3.
