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The Concorde... Airport '79
Kevin Harrison, a corrupt arms dealer, attempts to destroy an American-owned Concorde on its maiden flight after one of the passengers, reporter Maggie Whelan, learns of his weapons sales to communist countries during the Cold War.
The Concorde takes off from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris and lands at Dulles Airport outside Washington, D.C., despite being forced to perform a go-around when environmental protestors fly a hot air balloon into its approach path.
Maggie reports on the flight the following day, which leads to a story of Harrison and his Buzzard surface-to-air missile project. A man named Carl Parker claims to have documentation of illegal arms deals, but is shot by an assailant who chases Maggie before a passerby triggers a fire alarm, scaring the assailant away.
Maggie is told by Harrison that someone is framing him. He sends Maggie off in a limo, then plots to destroy the Concorde with Maggie on it by reprogramming an attack drone test to target the Concorde.
Capt. Joe Patroni and Capt. Paul Metrand board the Concorde. They are joined by Peter O'Neill, the 2nd officer and flight engineer.
Harrison surprises Maggie at the airline check-in desk to see her off. He asks whether the documents have shown up, but they have not. As he walks away, Parker's wife delivers the documents to Maggie. She reviews them and realizes that Harrison lied.
The Concorde departs for Paris. Unbeknownst to the flight crew, an off-course surface-to-air missile is headed for them. At his company headquarters, Harrison tells his controllers to alert the government. The USAF scrambles F-15 fighter jets to intercept the missile as it locks onto the Concorde. After evasive maneuvers by the Concorde, an F-15 destroys the missile.
As the Concorde approaches Europe, an F-4 Phantom II sent by Harrison engages the Concorde as French Air Force Mirage F1s scramble to help. The Concorde evades the F-4's missiles, but the explosion of one of them damages the plane's hydraulics. The Mirages shoot down the F-4 before the Concorde reaches the French coastline en route to Paris. Due to the damage, the plane lands at Le Bourget Airport instead of Charles de Gaulle. The Concorde barely stops at the last safety net. Metrand and Isabelle invite Patroni to dinner.
Harrison promises Maggie to go public with the documents but attempts to bribe her into revising his statement. After being paid by Harrison, a mechanic, Froelich, places a device in the Concorde's cargo door control unit, timed to open during flight.
As the passengers board, Froelich is at the security checkpoint when some of his money falls from his trouser leg. The X-ray technician attempts to return it, but Froelich runs off. On the runway, the Concorde's exhaust renders Froelich unconscious and scatters the money.
En route to Moscow, the automatic device opens the cargo door. Metrand sees the carpet tear down the middle of the aisle, signifying the fuselage is under tremendous stress and the aircraft is about to break apart. The cargo door is ripped off, causing a sudden decompression, damaging the aircraft and ripping a segment of the floor, knocking out the primary flight controls as the plane spirals towards the ground. The airline founder's seat lodges in the hole, acting as a plug. With only back-up systems available, the pilots attempt to fly to Innsbruck, Austria, for an emergency landing, but they are losing too much fuel. Metrand realizes they are flying towards a ski area he knows along the Alps in Patscherkofel; they could make a belly landing on a mountain-side.
The aircraft approaches the landing site while the ski patrol marks a runway, landing successfully. While passengers are being rescued, Maggie reports on the accident to a news reporter and mentions a major story she is about to release. Harrison, en route back to Washington, sees the newscast in his private plane and commits suicide. The last of the crew leaves the Concorde shortly before the fuselage explodes.