This was Peter Finch's final acting role. He received a posthumous Emmy nomination six months after winning a posthumous Oscar for Network (1976).
The flight crew shown in this movie, with the exception of the pilot (who was played by veteran actor Eddie Constantine), were the actual 115th crew who flew the aircraft in the movie. Not all the flight crew were the actual 115th flight crew (the stewardess was not).
Lieutenant Colonel Yonatan "Yonni" Netanyahu was the brother of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
At one point, Idi Amin, Jr. wears a Glengarry, a Scottish military cap, with a red and white tartan ribbon around it. Amin had been in the King's African Rifles, and suffered considerable racism from British officers. The only one to show him any respect was a Scot. After that, Amin had an affection for Scotland, even considering himself a pretender to the Scottish throne.
It's not shown in the film, but the commandos killed several Jewish hostages: Jean-Jacques Maimoni, a 19 year old French Jew who was mistaken for a hijacker, Pasco Cohen, a 52 year old Israeli, and Ida Borochovitch, a 56 year old Russian Jew.