The monastery location seen in the film is located at Meteora, Greece. Its the same famed region that featured in the later James Bond movie For Your Eyes Only (1981). The monastery was also used in Boy on a Dolphin (1957), memorable for the scene in which the art dealer played by Clifton Webb uses the old hand-cranked elevator to get to the top, assisted by the establishment's monks.
The little girl kidnapped in Skydivers was the daughter of a Navy seviceman stationed at the Nea Makri base north of Athens. That base is now closed. Several base personnel and dependents assisted the cast and crew of the movie by providing or helping locate needed props and supplies. We had a lot of fun being on the various sets and meeting the cast and crew.
Trade Paper 'Variety' reported that this film "provoked an international incident when a Greek electrician died in an explosion accident. Ironically, no one was seriously injured in the aerial scenes. Producer 'Terry Morse Jr' was arrested, exec producer Sandy Howard was detained in Greece for several weeks, and a $250,000 out-of-court settlement was made." Similarly, 'The New York Times' said that "the off-camera tale behind the film cast a more interesting story than the film itself: when a Greek electrician died during an explosion, the film's producer, Terry Morse Jr., was arrested by the Greek government, and executive producer Sandy Howard was detained in Greece for several weeks. Finally, an out-of-court settlement was reached with the Greek government to release the film producer."
In some of the picture's promotional material such as movie posters, an icon of a hang-glider was formed out of the wings of the character "K" within the lettering of the movie's Sky Riders (1976) title.
A large slogan saying "Assault on the Forbidden Fortress" confusingly suggested that this was the film's title on some of the picture's American movie posters.