At the beginning of the episode, the radar operator states that the plane is flying "south-south-east". The icon for the plane shows it flying south-south-west. In addition, if it were going SSE, it would have been flying away from the coast instead of towards it.
Commander May indicates to Gibbs that Lieutenant Weeks, who had just disappeared on a flying mission, was currently prescribed and taking Oxycodone for pain from injuries suffered during a hard landing. No military aircrew would EVER be authorized to fly while taking any pain medications stronger than an aspirin, let alone an opiate like Oxycodone. The aircrew would have to be placed on duties not involving flying and closely monitored by a flight surgeon while on such a medication, and would not be allowed to return to flying status without having a blood or urine test to ensure that there is no trace of the drug in the aircrew member's system.
All the cars in the parking lot at the bait shop where the front end is visible have front license plates. North Carolina does not have front license plates.
The title card reads USS FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, however the USS FDR (CV-42) was a midway-class aircraft carrier from 1942 and was decommissioned and scrapped in 1971; this vessel is the USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN-71) a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier launched in 1989.
An aircraft on a post maintenance flight would not be armed.
Gibbs and his team look for any evidence of the Lieutenant's presence on a Outer Banks, NC beach. Mountains can be seen in the background. Later, they visit her father's house, also on the Outer Banks, and mountains can be seen in the background again.
There are no mountains anywhere near the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
There are no mountains anywhere near the Outer Banks of North Carolina.
When McGee is on the beach with Gibbs and the others, he states the crash was south of their position. But he points north based on it being a North Carolina beach.
While McGee and Torres are standing on the beach, supposedly on the Outer Banks of North Carolina, in one shot tall, scrubland hills can be seen in the background. No such hills exist on the Outer Banks, where it is practically flat.
When Gibbs and the rest are on the North Carolina beach nearest to where the F-18 came down their shadows cast by the sun are 180 degrees out. The shadows would be correct for a west coast beach however.