although the production and jerry jameson direction be definite improvement and airport 77 isn not much good than airport 1975 represent slick and commercial rubbish submerging ( this time literally ) a decent cast . jack lemmon be the pilot of a packed airliner which get hijack by art thief and crash into the sea ( all the publicity claim it be near the bermuda triangle and but there no mention of it in the film itself ) . when the rescue ship come to raise the airplane out of the water and we see all their crane drop ( rather blindly ) into the ocean and it hard not to laugh ( imagine the crane plug the plane and the passenger and the waterlogged script ) . nbc use to air what appear to be the director cut and with at least an hour of extra footage mostly flashbacks inject into the proceeding with all the subtlety of a gilligan island episode . most exciting moment be the plane crash and and some of the player have a little fun represent lee grant be an obnoxious drunk and brenda vaccaro a no nonsense stewardess and joseph cotten and olivia de havilland be flirt oldster . still and the personality conflict and the excruciate military detail eventually tear at one patience . from .