Sylvia Kristel recounted the making of this film in her autobiography. According to her, Alain Delon felt he was not being taken seriously in Hollywood. On the first day, he demanded to switch trailers with director David Lowell Rich because his trailer wasn't large enough. At first Delon and Kristel did not get along, and he refused to get down on one knee in front of her for one scene. It wasn't until director David Lowell Rich began to treat Sylvia unkindly that Delon became more friendly toward her and they finished the production on good terms.
The picture was a critical and commercial failure at the box office with the lowest financial take of the four "Airport" movies.
George Kennedy, Monica Lewis, and Selma Archerd are the only returning cast members from the "Airport" films who appeared in this movie. Joe Patroni (Kennedy) appeared in all four of them.
This was French superstar Alain Delon's final attempt to make a name for himself in Hollywood and crack the U.S. market.
The Concorde featured in the film was the seventh one built. It first flew as F-WTSC on January 31, 1975, as part of the fleet of the aircraft company Aérospatiale. In May 1975, the registration number was changed to F-BTSC, with its serial number being No. 203. The plane was leased from Aerospatiale (France) for the movie, leased to Air France in 1976, and sold to them in October 1980. Pope John Paul II flew on the plane in 1989.
The actual plane used in this film crashed in Gonesse, France, on July 25, 2000, while trying to make an emergency landing at Le Bourget Airport (the same airport as in the movie). A metallic strip on the runway at Charles de Gaulle Airport had fallen from a Continental Airlines DC-10 (that had taken off minutes earlier) and punctured a tire on the Concorde's left main wheel, rupturing a fuel tank, with the leaking fuel catching fire and causing the plane to lose power. All 109 passengers and crew on-board, plus four people on the ground were killed.
The actual plane used in this film crashed in Gonesse, France, on July 25, 2000, while trying to make an emergency landing at Le Bourget Airport (the same airport as in the movie). A metallic strip on the runway at Charles de Gaulle Airport had fallen from a Continental Airlines DC-10 (that had taken off minutes earlier) and punctured a tire on the Concorde's left main wheel, rupturing a fuel tank, with the leaking fuel catching fire and causing the plane to lose power. All 109 passengers and crew on-board, plus four people on the ground were killed.