Trivia

When the airplane is shown crashing, the movie shows actual news footage of the real Flight 232 as shot by reporter Dave Boxum of KTIV-TV Sioux City, Iowa.

As of 2013, Gary Brown is still the director of Disaster Services for Woodbury County, Iowa. His techniques for disaster preparedness have been taught worldwide to firefighting and EMS personnel.

Towards the end of the film, a news conference on the crash of Flight 232 is shown on a television, with Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad praising Gary Brown for his well coordinated emergency response efforts after the crash. The footage is in fact real, with Branstad praising the real life Brown. Branstad served as the Governor of Iowa from 1983 to 1999, and was reelected once again in 2011.

Gary Brown, the real life director of Woodbury County Emergency Services (now called the Disaster Services Office) in Sioux City, Iowa, makes a cameo appearance as an emergency services employee in the film. He can be seen operating a radio in the mobile command post when Richard Thomas' character of Gary Brown arrives at the airport.

In the aftermath of the crash, Gary Brown is seen placing a banjo back into a case. One of the survivors of United 232 was prominent bluegrass player Pete "Dr. Banjo" Wernick.