In the James Bond movie Moonraker (1979), the earliest plot
development is the theft of a Moonraker shuttle from the back of
a 747 SCA, which, according to Bond (approx. 9m 36s into the
film), "crashed somewhere in the Yukon" (with no trace of the
shuttle, of course!). We know from the same scene that the
shuttle was being loaned from the Americans to the British, and
that the shuttle is manufactured in California. We also know
that the loaned shuttle was almost definitely destined for
Britain, as in an earlier scene a pilot (or navigator) says that
the 747 will "pass over the English coast 15 minutes ahead of
time." My question is: why would the 747 have crashed in the
Yukon? Assuming that the Moonraker was being flown from
California to Britain—e.g., from San Francisco to London—the
shortest great circle arc comes nowhere near overflying the
Yukon (see SFO-LHR route). Even using relatively northerly
locations in California and Britain, such as Crescent City,
California, and Perth, Scotland, the 747 still wo