On a routine flight from Los Angeles to Seattle, a crowded passenger jet loses its first engine--and then, apparently, its second--and crashes just after takeoff, leaving only one survivor (a remarkably uninjured stewardess). Adaptation of Ernest K. Gann's book is hampered by poor visual effects and dialogue, though this airline drama is still remarkably relevant, and nearly saved by some good performances. Glenn Ford is terrific as the investigator for the airline company pressured by board members into blaming the entire disaster on pilot Rod Taylor, an old military friend; Ford is uninterested in using the pilot as a scapegoat, instead putting his job on the line to seek out the actual reason the plane went down. Many issues the film brings up (pilot error, bird feathers jamming the engine, the possibility of a bomb) make it a notably undated effort, yet director Ralph Nelson stages the more dramatic sequences like cheapjack incidents from a TV serial. The cockpit action (including flashbacks to the war) is highly unconvincing, and the picture is further handicapped by an episodic structure and disappointing visuals. Ford's first-rate work is matched by Suzanne Pleshette, Nancy Kwan, and also by Nehemiah Persoff, excellent as an associate of Ford's who's eager to have his job. Taylor overdoes his naturally gregarious personality (he's too 'colorful' here), yet the film's finale is satisfying (if admittedly far-fetched) and the nasty politics of airline business are successfully brought off. One Oscar nomination: for Milton R. Krasner's black-and-white cinematography. **1/2 from ****