The Odyssey of Flight 33

John Anderson stars as the captain of Global Jetliner 33, which is a passenger jet en route from London to New York in what was a routine flight until it hits a mysterious tail wind that gives them the amazing sensation of speed, and the crew are shocked to find out that they have somehow traveled back in time 65 million years to the age of the dinosaurs(one is viewed out the window). Desperate, they retrace their route and go back along it, but don't quite make it back to their own year... Can they ever make it back home before they run out of fuel? Memorable episode takes its fantastic premise and handles it with authenticity and a commendable matter-of-fact, no-nonsense approach that works remarkably well.

Great episode.

My dad was a flight engineer on 707's from Idlewild. He survived the Tenerife crash.

While traveling from London to New York, the pilot and crew of Global Flight 33 discover that the airplane is mysteriously increasing the speed and breaking the sound barrier. Soon they realized that they have traveled in time to the human prehistory. The pilot increases the speed trying to return to 1961, but they learn that they reached New York in 1939. What will they do since they are short of fuel?

"The Odyssey of Flight 33" is an intriguing episode of "The Twilight Zone". Time travel is an attractive theme and Rod Serling writes a great episode with magnificent open conclusion. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Odisséia do Voo 33" ("Odyssey of Flight 33")

By the way, 3000 knots is 3450 statute miles per hour, not 2800 as someone wrote.

Interesting to note that La Guardia airport does have a runway 22 and I've landed on it (as the pilot). And thanks to the person who cleared up what the name of this airport would have been in 1939.

I really like the dialogue in the cockpit (rod's brother, robert serling wrote it...he wrote some excellent aviation books). Especially well done is the use of the "HORN" which stops the landing gear warning horn from sounding when pulling the throttles (thrust levers) back. nice to are nicknames like "magellan" for the navigator and "sparks" for the radio guy.

One of my favorite TZ eps. The other two are: I shot an arrow into the air. and , "Over the Rim".

And for anyone who cares, while JET FUEL would not have been available in 1939 to refuel the plane, a jet engine can actually use gasoline in a pinch with some restrictions like adding some oil to the gasoline to provide lubrication to fuel pumps.

In one of the simplest and yet most effective twilight zones, a passenger jet full of people unexpectedly accelerates to unheard of speeds and suddenly finds itself transported into the distant past. Time travel is one of the few endlessly entertaining storytelling premises, and although this story is presented almost entirely through dialogue, it is still one of the more vintage twilight episodes that I've seen. The first half of the episode is a little too simplistic, if only because we are trying to believe an airplane is travelling at thousands of knots, and yet there is not the slightest bit of vibration or noise in the cockpit. It looks more like they're sitting on the ground on a movie set, which they are.

But when the time travel takes place, I have to think that it had some inspiration on some later time travel movies, most notably the Back to the Future films, given the acceleration to a certain speed and the rather violent shock that accompanies the, uh, temporal displacement, if you will.

The payoff of the show is nothing more than a primitive go-motion dinosaur and some stock footage of the World's Fair in New York (which gives it the feeling that the entire episode was made to fit around that aerial stock footage of the World's Fair like a raindrop around a bit of dust), but this is an excellent example of how a simple idea and some quality writing and performances can make for a highly entertaining half hour. Excellent!