User Reviews

Airport 77 meets Airwolf! Like most disaster movie's Flight #093 Is Missing has a character build up, the cause of disaster , and the aftermath. Like Earthquake, Towering Infernal, and all other 70's movie story lines, Airwolf has Caitlin fling back to Texas on Flight 093 for a wedding. All the characters have disaster movie character arches. Panic guy, good looking women in swimsuits etc, are in the mix with nasty hijackers. The aftermath is Airwolf rescue. I will not give away the whole story but there is memorable double crosses and a take down with the hijackers ending with a big air combat and rescue final. Entertaining 8 stars.

Hijackers take control of the cockpit of an airplane headed for Texas, with Caitlin onboard (reluctantly, returning home for her sister's wedding, much to her chagrin) as well as the airline's CEO (Philip Abbott) hoping to secure further financing for his airline), submerging it underwater to hide its location as a storm is brewing. The two ringleaders from a shipping yard, responsible for orchestrating the hijack plot, arrive, where their fellow hijackers emerge in their scuba gear, in a boat with rocket launchers, a sub machine gun, and depth charges (!) making sure the area is secure...now that the plane is on the bottom, the hijackers that surface are no longer needed so the ringleaders gun them down! No reason to share 50 million, when two could split for so much more. But the hijack plotters don't anticipate String and Santini in their Airwolf! Caitlin is given the spotlight and Jean Bruce Scott makes the most of it, maintaining calm as anxieties and fear arise among the passengers and stewardesses. Unfortunately it will be up to String and Santini to come to their rescue as the pilots in the cockpit were killed by the glass being disrupted after the hijackers left the plane, and the ongoing storm shifted the plane to where the rivets were loosened, allowing water to leak in. Missiles and machine gun fire from the hijack plotters at Airwolf does some damage but String makes sure they pay for their crimes...not before depth charges further rattle the plane causing water to increasingly leak into it. Good example of Caitlin's quirky sense of humor and overall mild-mannered temperament put to use when she keeps her fellow passengers (including a swell moment bringing a panicky stewardess out of her terror) from losing their cool. Abbott as the CEO who knows everything about his plane's stability and capabilities is a fine support for Caitlin, giving her the information she needs to decide how to address those inside the plane. Ina Balin as Abbott's airline colleague (admitting to String she's in love with him) is also good in support with what little she's given, including her stumbling over telling her boss her feelings for him. Nothing about the episode is spectacular and even by 1984/1985 the plane hijack plot was shopworn, but as a Caitlin-centered story it does what it needs to in order to put her over. The episode also conveys Airwolf's abilities to "weather the storm".