Mercy Mission: The Rescue Of Flight 771

Mercy Mission: the Rescue of Flight 771 (also known as Flight From Hell) is a 1993 TV movie based on the real-life rescue of the pilot of a Cessna 188. It stars Scott Bakula as Jay Perkins, the pilot of Cessna 30771, and Robert Loggia as Gordon Vette, the ANZ flight 308 pilot who rescues him. Although the film premiered on American television, it was filmed on location in Australia.[1]

Mercy Mission: The Rescue of Flight 771

A search and rescue mission is sent out to find Jay, but their progress is hindered by a storm. Air traffic control tells Flight 308 that they are the only flight in the area that might be able to help. Gordon radios Jay and discovers that he is in danger of running out of fuel. Knowing that Jay is doomed without his help, Gordon convinces his passengers to let him change course and search for Jay.

The only rescue planes available are in Auckland and unable to take off immediately. In addition, there are no ships in the vicinity of N30771. The only plane in that air space is Air New Zealand flight 308. Auckland Centre asks Captain Vette if he can provide some help. The airline pilot talks with Jay, recommends that he save as much fuel as he can, talks to his flight crew and his passengers and convinces them to divert the flight and find the pilot.

Film on location in Australia, it tells of the real-life, 1978 rescue of a distressed Cessna pilot (Bakula), lost and low on fuel somewhere in the Tasman Sea between Oz and New Zealand. Loggia, as a commercial airline pilot on his last flight, leads the by-air search and rescue.

Having bitten your nails to the quick during such in-flight thrillers as The Night My Number Came Up and No Highway, played count the celebrities in the Airport blockbusters and wept with laughter at the Airplane! spoofs, it's pretty hard to get excited about a routine plane-in-crisis movie such as this one. Every scenario has been exhausted and every cockpit cliché done to death. Scott Bakula has the misfortune to be at the controls of this particular lame duck, but he's lucky to have Robert Loggia not only to rescue his plane, but also to salvage some credibility for the film. 041b061a72