The Odyssey of Flight 33
| "The Odyssey of Flight 33" | |
|---|---|
| The Twilight Zone episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 18 |
| Directed by | Justus Addiss |
| Written by | Rod Serling |
| Featured music | Stock |
| Production code | 173-3651 |
| Original air date | February 24, 1961 |
| Guest appearance(s) | |
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"The Odyssey of Flight 33" is episode 54 of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. An unlikely break of the time barrier finds a commercial airliner sent back into the prehistoric age and then to New York City of 1939. The tale is a modern telling of the Flying Dutchman myth. It originally aired on February 24, 1961 on CBS.
You're riding on a jet airliner en route from London to New York. You're at 35,000 feet atop an overcast and roughly fifty-five minutes from Idlewild Airport. But what you've seen occur inside the cockpit of this plane is no reflection on the aircraft or the crew. It's a safe, well-engineered, perfectly designed machine. And the men you've just met are a trained, cool, highly efficient team. The problem is simply that the plane is going too fast, and there is nothing within the realm of knowledge or at least logic to explain it. Unbeknownst to passenger and crew, this airplane is heading into an uncharted region well off the beaten track of commercial travelers—it's moving into The Twilight Zone. What you're about to see we call "The Odyssey of Flight 33."
The episode takes place on Global Airlines Flight 33, en route from London to New York City. About 50 minutes from Idlewild Airport (now called JFK), Captain Farver and his crew notice that the speed of their Boeing 707 is increasing rapidly. A flash of light is seen, accompanied by severe turbulence. The crew is able to identify the coastline of Manhattan Island, the East River, Hudson River, Staten Island and other geographic landmarks, but see no signs of civilization. Unable to contact anyone on radio, the crew realizes that they have traveled far back in time when they look out the window and see no signs of civilization, only grazing dinosaurs.
Determining that their only hope of returning to the present day is to repeat the previous maneuver, and with dwindling fuel supply, the plane increases altitude in an attempt to catch the same freak jet stream and to return to 1961. At first, the maneuver appears to work; New York City is once again visible, and although they still cannot contact Idlewild, they are able to reach LaGuardia Airport, which the crew initially plans to use to refuel. However, the air traffic controller on the radio does not understand references to current aircraft technology such as VOR, ILS and jet aircraft. The controller eventually allows the aircraft to land but orders the captain to report to the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) office afterward; one of the officers remarks that they haven't called the Federal Aviation Agency by that name in years.
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