Goofs

In the beginning, when Bill Marks visits the cockpit, you see the power levers of a 4 engine airplane. However, the all exterior shot of the airplane show the plane has 2 engines only.

When the plane suffers the sudden drop in altitude, Marks and at least one of the flight attendants are thrown forcefully to the ceiling of the cabin. Marks, in particular, is then thrown about sideways across the cabin and lands in the opposite aisle from the one where he was originally standing. Moments later, Marks, in a moment of reflection, is shown to be looking at a table top where a variety of liquor bottles and glasses are sitting, upright and apparently undisturbed. Had the plane actually suffered a sudden violent drop in altitude, these obviously unsecured items would have been thrown around and quite likely broken, yet none of the items appeared damaged.

In the beginning of the movie, when Bill gets the first message, he replies "Who is this?", however his fingers can be seen pressing completely different keys on his cellphone.

During the fight in the lavatory, a phone is dropped into the basin which is then filled with water. During the fight, the basin is empty again in some shots, then towards the end of the sequence it is filled with water.

Early in the movie, Jen Summers and Bill Marks order beverages while seated on the plane. The flight attendant brings over a gin and tonic and a water and places them in the cup holders. In the very next scene that shows them in their seats, the drinks are gone.

In the news report at the end of the movie everything is in English, except for the Icelandic word "tilkynna", presumably intended to serve as the usage of the English word "report". Now, there are several issues with this: First of, the conjugated form of the word as presented here indicates that it is the _verb_, not the noun (as in "to report", not "a report"), a common mistake one would get from using a translation program rather than asking a human. Secondly, there was no reason for this word being there when everything else was in English. And lastly, Icelandic news media do not even apply the usage of that word in this very American/English "Breaking News" fashion to their news reports in the first place.

During pushback from the gate there is no tug attached to the nose gear of the airplane and it looks like it is reversing by itself. Although commercial jet aircraft have the ability to use reverse thrust (the same type of thrust used during landing) and push back under own power if need be, this is hardly ever done.

Federal agents do not taste drugs-look-alike powder like Marks did when he first opened Hammond's briefcase.

If the Pilot in command of a commercial airliner is incapacitated, the Co-Pilot would not remain in the right seat to continue the flight He would move to the left seat before landing in order to operate the nose gear steering tiller. The nose gear steering tiller is located on the left side of the cockpit at knee level and is operated with the left hand of the pilot occupying the left seat.

At one point, the pilot slumps onto his flight yoke, resulting in a sudden altitude change. This causes a flight attendant to magically "launch" from the cabin floor and violently slam against the 10' high cabin ceiling. In reality, a push on the flight yoke by the slumped pilot of such a plane would never cause a person to be whipped upwards in place. The depicted change in altitude would likely be mitigated by the sheer size and thrust of the airplane, and the person would simply lose their balance.

Before Bill Marks hands Reilly the pistol he charges the weapon. Later on Reilly discovers the weapon is empty. If the weapon was empty the pistol would have locked in the open position when charged if there was no round in the magazine unless Marks pressed the slide release while performing the motion. The real error is that Reilly never checks the weapon himself, nor notices that the balance of the weapon is off because it's unloaded.

Bill says that the suspect making the calls will be put into "federal custody" on arriving in London. No law enforcement agencies in the UK are known as "federal", they would be met by the Metropolitan Police and the UK Border Agency. However, it is quite possible that he would request that the airplane return to a U.S. airport.

US Federal Air Marshals would not be flying on a UK Aircraft. As this flight was a British flight, "British Aqualantic Airlines", Flight 10, it would be for the UK authorities to provide them. This has happened since 2002. No passenger would be held under federal arrest after arriving in London (as was suggested) but handed over to London's Metropolitan Police. See Tokyo Convention. However, there are exceptions that have occurred such in 2006 when explosive liquids were found on a British flight bound for the US and again in 2014 during the first anniversary of Osama bin Laden's anniversary. Also in considerations the TSA handles this system, their website states "flexible and agile organization of today, meeting the ever-changing security challenges of the nation's transportation systems".

When the plane levels at 8000 ft, the gun begins floating in the air. In this situation this is totally opposite of what would actually happen. In real life it would be more stuck to the floor due to increased gravity force.

At Bill visits the toilet before boarding he is washing up in front of the toilet mirror. His Air Marshall colleague is standing next to him with the camera shooting right between them. This shot was made by creating the illusion of a mirror. This is revealed by the paper towel Bill uses to wipe his face. It is not fully in sync with his reflection.

When Bill sends his second message to the unknown assailant, the message sends before he presses the Return key. Also, before the 'floating messages' scenes, there was no auto-correct, but soon after, the word 'supposed' was added using auto-correct.

At one point the pilot turns the plane to the right and he later explains he has been ordered to go north. However, a right turn would turn the plane to the south on a flight from NYC to London.

When the plane is supposedly heading north (to Iceland) the rising sun is shown on the left side of the plane. Obviously when heading north, east is to the right.

The surroundings of the airport in Keflavík, Iceland, is shown as inland, with green fields with some snowy mountains in the background. The actual airport is just by the sea, surrounded by lava and there are no mountains close by.

The fact that the old lady that claims to see Jenn enter the bathroom after her is never explained at the end of the film. Also how could nobody notice the second poison victim's death and how could he not have noticed a phone in his jacket.

It is unclear why Marks did not gather all the passengers sitting in executive class to question them about the restroom incident. If a passenger from coach had attempted to use the restroom in executive class, it likely would have been noticed by the crew members and possibly by other passengers. Therefore, it should not have been difficult for Marks to round up all the executive class passengers and ask if they had seen anyone enter the restroom, as there were only a few people.}

When the plane abruptly descends and the oxygen masks drop, Jen grabs the mask and puts it on Becca's head before putting on hers. This is exactly what they tell you NOT to do in every speech on every plane in the world before take off.

It makes no sense for the escorting fighter planes to fly next to the airliner they believe to be hijacked because that is not a position from which they could take immediate action. They would in fact be taking station to its rear.

Air marshals in the United States Federal Air Marshal Service must be sworn initially between the ages of 21 and 37. At the time of the film's release, Liam Neeson was 61 years old. Also, he says he was a cop for 25 years, which would make it impossible for him to be an air marshal regardless of Neeson's actual age.