a handful of survivors on the airliner must now have to achieve the impossible: to land the aircraft despite weather, intrigues and technical problems. while terror and hysteria begin to increase for those on board, john berry (aidan quinn), a weekend pilot is forced to take control of the airliner and navigate it to safety. meanwhile, the u.s. military, anne metz (gail o'grady), a representative from the insurance company and executives from the pacific global airline are all working to keep the incident a secret. u.s. navy commander james sloan (dean cain) sends lt. peter matos (james thomas) to destroy the crippled airliner, but the pilot disobeys his orders.