This movie is a docudrama based on an actual event, so there's little excuse for criticizing the storyline, particularly since the acting was decent. However, the directing and casting were less than perfect.
For starters, the event takes place on a Canadian airliner on it's way to Winnipeg. The principle Winnipeg air traffic controller is Al Williams, played by Nicholas Turturro who is from Queens, New York. Nick as the presumably Canadian air traffic controller didn't leave his thick New York accent back home when he went to Winnipeg to speak his lines, and the director apparently did not believe native English-speaking viewers would notice it.
Among commercial airline pilots, the captain is typically considerably older than the first officer (co-pilot), and normally noticeably so. However, on this particular version of Flight 174, the first officer looked older than the captain, and the actors IMDb bios show only a three-year age difference between them.
Towards the latter part of the story, the pilots start preparing for an emergency landing near Winnipeg. However, in every cockpit scene during that segment, the view of the outside terrain from the cockpit windows is always the same as if the plane was in suspended celestial animation.
But again, maybe the director thought we wouldn't notice.