Finally acting to protect the passengers, the Sky Marshal (Peter Smith) is killed, but Vitale shoots the terrorists and takes back control of the Starquest. With the Franklin family rescued, the President resorts to a last-ditch attempt to down the aircraft. Using a new and unpredictable satellite-based laser results in taking out one of the trailing F-22 Raptors. She tells her brother to do the only thing left, pilot the Starquest to a water landing on the Potomac River, at Washington D.C.. After a lengthy career as an cinematographer, electrician, gaffer and film crew member, John Willis III (credited as John "Jay"' Willis III) made his directorial debut in "Airline Disaster". "Airline Disaster" was released domestically on DVD on May 3, 2011, and internationally, on December 1, 2011. The DVD came with a "behind-the-scenes" film. On its release on Blu-ray, in a searing indictment of "Airline Disaster", reviewer Martin Liebman, described the film as the epitome of "... epically bad and lazy movies". He further stated: "Unacceptable. Insulting. Unbelievable. 'Disaster' aptly describes this mind-boggling junk heap of a movie that's awful even by The Asylum's low standards." Reviewer Jeffrey Long in the "B-Movie Review" of "Airline Disaster" , however, found " this is pretty close to as good as they can get in the B-Movie realm".