Starflight: The Plane That Couldn't Land

Starflight: The Plane That Couldn’t Land
Theatrical poster
Genre	Science Fiction Thriller
Written by	Peter R. Brooke Robert M. Young
Directed by	Jerry Jameson
Starring	Lee Majors Hal Linden Lauren Hutton Ray Milland Gail Strickland George DiCenzo Tess Harper Terry Kiser
Music by	Lalo Schifrin
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
Production
Executive producer(s)	Allan Manings Henry Winkler
Producer(s)	Peter Nelson Arnold H. Orgolini Peter R. Brooke (associate producer)
Cinematography	Héctor R. Figueroa (credited as Hector Figueroa)
Editor(s)	John F. Link
Running time	105 min.
Production company(s)	Orgolini-Nelson Productions Orion Pictures
Distributor	ABC
Release
Original network	ABC
Original release	February 27, 1983 (1983-02-27) (television broadcast premiere)

Starflight: The Plane That Couldn’t Land (also known as Starflight One or Airport 85) is a 1983 made-for-television film directed by Jerry Jameson. The film stars Lee Majors, Hal Linden, Lauren Hutton, Ray Milland, Gail Strickland, George DiCenzo, Tess Harper and Terry Kiser. The film also featured an all-star ensemble television cast in supporting roles.

Jameson had become known for his work on "... movie-of-the-week phenomenon and group-jeopardy suspense and terror." His work with Lee Majors had begun with the television series The Six Million Dollar Man in 1973 with the actor starring in three of Jameson's later films.

Starflight, the first hypersonic transport is being prepared for a media-covered inaugural flight from Los Angeles to Sydney, Australia, a planned two-hour flight. The passengers bring some of their problems on board: the pilot, Cody Briggs (Lee Majors), is unfaithful to his wife Janet (Tess Harper) and having an affair with the media relations representative for Thornwall Aviation, Erica Hansen (Lauren Hutton). Hal Parisi (Phil Coccoioletti) married another passenger because she won the trip on TV, but he is only interested in getting his stolen gold out of the country. Freddie Barrett (Terry Kiser) is trying to get his communications satellite launched from Australia to start his business carrying television signals. Starflight’s takeoff is delayed a short time so that the deceased Australian ambassador and his wife, Mrs. Winfield, can be taken aboard. Del (Kirk Scott), the first officer, remembers that nothing good happened the last time a corpse came aboard his aircraft. Finally, Josh Gilliam, the designer (Hal Linden), has misgivings, wishing the engines were under ground control.