Disaster films were huge in the 1970's. Some film historians claim that it was due to American disillusionment with government agencies due to the Kennedy assassination, Vietnam and Watergate. The granddaddy of the disaster films was Airport, a melodramatic film that oddly garnered numerous Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Film. The film featured a who's who of actors on the way up or on the way down, creating a pattern for other films in the genre to follow- call up nearly everyone in Hollywood, hire the first twenty or so people who answered their phone, then put them on a conveyance that was destined for disaster. Airport was wildly successful, spawning a franchise that was definitely running on fumes by 1979.
Rather than get out while they were ahead, the producers of Airport decided to go to the well at least one more time. In the final outing, the well of celebrities willing to be in these films had long dried up and the franchise was stuck with the type of cast one might expect on an episode of the Love Boat- there was Martha Raye, Jimmy JJ Walker, John Davidson and Charo. (An example of the film's ineptitude- Martha Raye but not Charo has a wet t-shirt scene.)
The picture that says it all about this film is when George Kennedy opens up a window (on the Concorde!) to fire off a flare gun to divert a heat seeking missile. Again, this happens on the Concorde! Could the writer of this film science? Probably, but to paraphrase MST3K, they just didn't care.
