''Fire and Rain'' is a 1989 American

made-for-television A television film, alternatively known as a television movie, made-for-TV film/movie or TV film/movie, is a feature-length film that is produced and originally distributed by or to a television network, in contrast to theatrical films made for ...

disaster film A disaster film or disaster movie is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject and primary plot device. Such disasters may include natural disasters, accidents, military/terrorist attacks or global catastrophes such as ...

directed by Jerry J. Jameson, starring

Charles Haid Charles Maurice Haid III (born June 2, 1943) is an American actor and television director, with notable work in both movies and television. He is best known for his portrayal of Officer Andy Renko in ''Hill Street Blues''. Haid was born in San ...

Angie Dickinson Angeline Dickinson (née Brown; born September 30, 1931) is an American actress. She began her career on television, appearing in many anthology series during the 1950s, before gaining her breakthrough role in ''Gun the Man Down'' (1956) wit ...

, and Tom Bosley, as well as an all-star ensemble television cast in supporting roles. It is based on the

Delta Air Lines Flight 191 Delta Air Lines Flight 191 was a regularly scheduled Delta Air Lines domestic service from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, to Los Angeles with an intermediate stop at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW). On August 2, 1985, the Lockhee ...

plane crash An aviation accident is defined by the Convention on International Civil Aviation Annex 13 as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft, which takes place from the time any person boards the aircraft with the ''intention of fl ...

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport , also known as DFW Airport, is the primary international airport serving the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex and the North Texas Region in the U.S. state of Texas. It is the largest hub for American Air ...

on August 2, 1985, as depicted in ''Fire and Rain: A Tragedy in American Aviation'' (1986) by Jerome Greer Chandler. Jerry J. Jameson had become known for his work on "movie-of-the-week phenomenon and group-jeopardy suspense and terror", although he also became a specialist in "one-off" television and film features. The film was an example of the aviation "disaster" film, as well, it also very much fits the additional

genre Genre () is any form or type of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially-agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other for ...

of the complex, heavily character-driven

ensemble cast In a dramatic production, an ensemble cast is one that is composed of multiple principal actors and performers who are typically assigned roughly equal amounts of screen time.Random House: ensemble acting Linked 2013-07-17 Structure In contrast to ...

film, exploring the personal dramas and interactions that develop among the passengers and crew as they deal with a deadly onboard emergency. It, however, veers from the traditional format as it is based on a real-life accident. It originally debuted on the USA television network.

Plot

On August 2, 1985, Delta Airlines Flight 191 a Lockheed L-1011 flown by Captain Connors ( John Beck) and First Officer Rudy Price (

Dick Christie Richard Leslie Christie (born October 21, 1948, in Long Beach, California) is an American actor. He is best known for portraying Ted Lawson on the 1980s sitcom ''Small Wonder''. His other television credits include '' Who's the Boss?'', '' Days ...

) is preparing to land at

on its single stop, flying from

Fort Lauderdale, Florida Fort Lauderdale () is a coastal city located in the U.S. state of Florida, north of Miami along the Atlantic Ocean. It is the county seat of and largest city in Broward County with a population of 182,760 at the 2020 census, making it the tenth ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

via Dallas Fort Worth. Air Traffic controllers advise that a thunderstorm is present. The flight crew surmise that the plane might get washed, but have no other worries about the storm being so near. Passengers such as Lucille Jacobson (

Patti LaBelle Patricia Louise Holte (born May 24, 1944), known professionally as Patti LaBelle, is an American R&B singer, actress and businesswoman. LaBelle is referred to as the " Godmother of Soul". She began her career in the early 1960s as lead singe ...

), who is terrified of flying, however, are fearful about landing in a storm. Others, like Marilyn (Gloria Hocking) and Mike Steinberg (Joe Berryman) are thinking more about their California vacation. As the rain pelts down on the plane, there is no warning of an impending crisis. Without warning, the L-1011 is slammed into the ground, a mile short of the runway, slicing into a small car on the road, killing William Mayberry (Rudy Young), before skidding onto the field and exploding. Within a minute, all airport fire and emergency units are alerted. Five minutes into the rescue, first responders Jack Ayers ( Dean Jones), Beth Mancini (

), led by Bob Sonnamaker (

) are rapidly deployed to the scene. The severed rear section of the plane is where most survivors are found although flight attendants at the front also survive.

Cast

as Bob Sonnamaker *

as Beth Mancini * Tom Bosley as Derryl Price *

Robert Guillaume Robert Guillaume (born Robert Peter Williams; November 30, 1927 – October 24, 2017) was an American actor and singer, known for his role as Benson DuBois in the ABC television series ''Soap'' and its spin-off, ''Benson'', as well as for voici ...

as Carter Guthrie *

Susan Ruttan Susan Diane Ruttan (née Dunsrud; born September 16, 1948) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Roxanne Melman on ''L.A. Law'' (1986–1993), for which she was nominated four times for a Primetime Emmy Award. Life and caree ...

as Sandra Thompson * John Beck as Captain Connors * Dean Jones as Jack Ayers *

as First Officer Rudy Price *

Penny Fuller A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is th ...

as Peggy Hamilton *

David Hasselhoff David Michael Hasselhoff (born July 17, 1952), nicknamed "The Hoff", is an American actor, singer, and television personality. He has set a Guinness World Record as the most watched man on TV. Hasselhoff first gained recognition on ''The You ...

as Dr. Dan Meyer *

as Lucille Jacobson *

Lawrence Pressman Lawrence Pressman (born David M. Pressman; July 10, 1939) is an American actor, probably best known for roles on ''Doogie Howser, M.D.'', ''Ladies' Man'', a recurring role on '' Profiler'', the title character on ''Mulligan's Stew'' and as a f ...

as Paul Hamilton * Joe Berryman as Michael Steinberg * Gloria Hocking as Marilyn Steinberg * Blue Deckert as Jim Rodman * L. Gregg Loso as Clint Smith * Marianne Rogers as Wanda * Angie Bolling as Helen Smith/Sally Howard * Jerry Young as Christopher Meier * Rudy Young as William Mayberry * Annie Biggs as Terri Mayberry * Desi Doyen as Susan Anderson * Gary Moody as Charles Petty * Vernon Grote as Rescue Worker * Macaulay Bruton as Rabbi * Norma Harris Gordon as Amy Hughes * Patricia Zehentmayr as herself * Phil Shirey as Lead Person

Production

Filmed at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, the film was a

docudrama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television and film, which features dramatized re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of documentary and drama and "a fact-based representation of real event". Docudramas typic ...

that recreated the events of August 2, 1985, when Delta Airlines Flight 191, a Lockheed L-1011-385-1 TriStar airliner flying from Fort Lauderdale, Florida to Los Angeles was coming into Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on its single stop on the route. It unexpectedly flew into an isolated thunderstorm hovering very close to the field. The storm created a dangerous "

wind shear Wind shear (or windshear), sometimes referred to as wind gradient, is a difference in wind speed and/or direction over a relatively short distance in the atmosphere. Atmospheric wind shear is normally described as either vertical or horizontal ...

", or " microburst", dashing it into the ground just slightly more than a mile north of the outer perimeter. The film incorporated the true-life stories of many of the 152 passengers and 11 crew members on board. In the end, 137 died and 28 survived; one other person on the ground was also killed. The prologue to the film indicated that the crash was one of the worst aircraft mishaps in U.S. history. Up to that time, the circumstances behind it regarding microbursts and wind shears of the kind that brought it down, as well as the kind of thunderstorm that caused them, were unknown. Subsequently, the investigation and review of procedures led to modifications in all big-body civil aircraft whereby their radar could detect the anomalies of major storm systems. At the time, it could only detect the actual presence of the storm itself. A groundbreaking legal action also resulted.Magnuson, Ed
"Like a Wall of Napalm."
''Time,'' April 18, 2005. Many firefighters and emergency personnel were portrayed by real first responders from the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Some of them had been on duty during the actual rescue following the crash, and were, in effect, portraying themselves.

In popular culture

The crash of Delta Flight 191 was not only the subject of the film. It was also featured on an episode of ''

When Weather Changed History ''When Weather Changed History'' was an American documentary television series that was shown The Weather Channel from 2008 to 2009. It chronicles major events in history and the effect weather had on them. Program History ''When Weather Changed ...

'' on

The Weather Channel The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel broadcasts weather forecas ...

, and the episode "Deadly Weather" of ''

Survival in the Sky ''Survival in the Sky'', known as ''Black Box'' in the United Kingdom, is a British documentary series of six one-hour episodes produced by Darlow Smithson Productions for The Learning Channel and Channel 4. The series was narrated by Will Lyma ...

''.''Survival in the Sky'' episode The television series ''

Mayday Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications. It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiza ...

'' (aka ''Air Crash Investigation'' or ''Air Emergency'') on

Discovery Channel Canada Discovery Channel (often referred to as simply Discovery) is a Canadian specialty television channel owned by CTV Speciality Television Inc. (a joint venture between Bell Media/ESPN Inc. (80%) and Warner Bros. Discovery (which owns the remaining ...

and

National Geographic ''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...

dramatized it in the episode "Invisible Killer" (aka "Slammed to the Ground")."Slammed To The Ground." ''

''. It was also shown and discussed in a later ''

'' episode about the

American Airlines Flight 1420 American Airlines Flight 1420 was a flight from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) to Little Rock National Airport in the United States. On June 1, 1999, the McDonnell Douglas MD-82 operating as Flight 1420 overran the runway upon l ...

accident, which also occurred during landing in bad weather conditions.

References

Notes Citations Bibliography * Birtles, Phillip. ''Lockheed L-1011 TriStar'' (Airliner Color History). St. Paul: Minnesota: Motorbooks International, 1998. . * Chandler, Jerome Greer. ''Fire and Rain: A Tragedy in American Aviation''. Austin, Texas: Texas Monthly Press, 1986. . * Roberts, Jerry. ''Encyclopedia of Television Film Directors''. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2009. .

External links

* * {{Jerry Jameson 1989 television films 1989 films 1980s disaster films 1989 crime drama films American aviation films American disaster films Disaster films based on actual events Disaster television films Drama films based on actual events American drama television films Films about aviation accidents or incidents Films about death Films directed by Jerry Jameson Films scored by Artie Kane Films set in 1985 Films set on airplanes 1980s English-language films 1980s American films Films set in Texas