Plot
During a severe January snowstorm at Chicago's Lincoln International Airport, Trans Global Airlines (TGA) Flight 45's crew misjudge their turn from Runway 29 onto the taxiway. The Boeing 707 gets stuck in the snow, and its tail fouls the runway, causing it to be closed due to safety concerns. Airport manager Mel Bakersfeld is forced to work overtime, causing tension with his estranged wife Cindy. A divorce seems imminent as he nurtures a closer relationship with TGA customer relations agent Tanya Livingston.
TGA pilot Vernon Demerest is scheduled to evaluate Captain Anson Harris during TGA Flight 2 to Rome, aboard the airline's flagship international flight titled The Golden Argosy. Despite being married to Bakersfeld's sister Sarah, Demerest is having an affair with chief stewardess Gwen Meighen who informs him before takeoff that she is pregnant with his child. They consider abortion, but Gwen has moral qualms about such a procedure and expresses the excitement she felt upon being told of her pregnancy.
Bakersfeld calls in TWA senior mechanic Joe Patroni to assist with removing the disabled plane. He and Tanya also deal with Ada Quonsett, an elderly widow from San Diego who is a habitual stowaway on various airlines. Bakersfeld also clashes with commissioner Ackerman, who wishes to close the alternate runway 22 (and thus the entire airport) due to noise complaints from nearby residents.
Former U.S. Army Corps of Engineers demolition expert Dominic "D.O." Guerrero, who has a history of mental illness, buys both a ticket aboard Flight 2 and a large life insurance policy, intending to commit suicide. He plans to detonate a bomb in a briefcase as the plane flies over the Atlantic Ocean so that his wife Inez, a waitress, will collect a $225,000 insurance policy payout. His erratic behavior at the airport, including mistaking a customs officer for a gate agent, attracts officials' attention. Inez finds a special delivery envelope from a travel agency, and upon realizing her husband might be doing something desperate, she rushes to the airport to try to dissuade him, but she arrives shortly after Flight 2 departs. She informs officials that he had been fired from a construction job for "misplacing" explosives and that the family's financial situation is dire.
Mrs. Quonsett manages to evade Peter Coakley, the TGA gate agent assigned to escort her to her flight back home to San Diego. Enchanted by the idea of a trip to Rome, she talks her way past the gate agent, boards Flight 2 and sits next to Guerrero. When the flight crew is made aware of Guerrero's situation, they turn the plane back toward Chicago without informing the passengers. Once Quonsett is discovered onboard, her help is enlisted by the flight crew who promise her free lifetime first-class travel on TGA to get to the briefcase, but the ploy fails due to meddlesome passenger Marcus Rathbone, who thinks that the crew is stealing the suitcase and thus gives it back to Guerrero.
Demerest tries to persuade Guerrero not to trigger the bomb, informing him that his insurance policy has been nullified. Guerrero moves to give Demerest the bomb, but panics and runs into the lavatory after Rathbone loudly mentions the bomb and shortly detonates it, killing himself and subsequently blowing a three-foot hole in the rear fuselage. Gwen and some other passengers are seriously injured in the explosion and subsequent explosive decompression, but the pilots retain control of the 707. However, flight control is severely hindered due to the blast damage.
With all eastern airports closed due to bad weather, Flight 2 returns to Lincoln for an emergency landing. Demerest knows that a fatal crash landing would happen if they attempt to land on the shorter Runway 22, and thus demands the airport's longest runway, Runway 29, which is still closed due to the disabled airliner. Bakersfeld orders that plane be sacrificed and forcibly pushed off by snowplows. However, Patroni goes ahead and manages to move it without damage by defying the specified engine and structural limit requirements, allowing Runway 29 to be reopened just in time for the crippled Flight 2 to land. His assistant declares that the feat was impossible according to the flight manual, to which Patroni replies "That's one nice thing about the 707. It can do everything but read."
As the passengers deplane, a tearful Inez apologizes for her now late husband's actions. Demerest's wife Sarah sees him accompanying Gwen's stretcher as he intends to go with Gwen to the hospital. Demerest has now decided he wants her to go through with her pregnancy. Mrs. Quonsett enjoys her lifetime reward of free first-class travel on TGA, but says she preferred being a stowaway. Bakersfeld and Tanya leave together, heading to her apartment for "rest" and breakfast.
