page_title: The Odyssey of Flight 33
section_title: Plot
hierarchical_section_title: The Odyssey of Flight 33 / Plot
caption_attribution_description: CANON 400D &amp; 100-400IS LE BOURGET 20/06/2007
context_page_description: "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.
context_section_description: The episode takes place on Global Airlines Flight 33, en route from London to New York City.  About 50 minutes from Idlewild (now Kennedy) Airport, Captain Farver and his crew notice that the ground speed of their Boeing 707 is rapidly increasing beyond all reason.  Their true air speed remains constant, so there is no risk of the plane breaking up.  They can no longer contact anyone by radio.  Even one of the passengers seems to sense the increase in speed.
  A flash of light is seen, accompanied by severe turbulence, although the captain wonders if they have gone through the sound barrier. There is no apparent damage to the aircraft.  Still unable to contact anyone on the ground, and at the risk of potential collision with other aircraft, Farver finally decides to descend below the clouds. The crew is able to identify the coastline of Manhattan Island and other geographic landmarks, but there is no city.  The crew realizes that they have traveled far back in time when they see grazing dinosaurs.
  With dwindling fuel supply, their only hope of returning to the present day is to increase altitude and speed in an attempt to catch the same "freak jet stream" and to return to 1961.  At first, it appears to work; after another flash of light and violent shaking, New York City is once again visible, and although they still cannot contact Idlewild, they are able to reach LaGuardia Airport.  However, the air traffic controller on the radio does not understand references to Idlewild or to current aircraft technology such as VOR, ILS and jet aircraft.  The controller eventually clears the aircraft to land at La Guardia, but orders the captain to report to the Civil Aeronautics Administration (CAA) office afterward; the captain remarks that they haven't called the Federal Aviation Administration by that name in years.  The copilot spots the buildings and structures from the 1939 New York World's Fair below. They have come forward in time, just not far enough.
  Because LaGuardia's runway is too short to handle a Boeing 707, and because it is 1939, the captain decides not to attempt the landing, but instead make another attempt to return "home" to 1961 before the plane runs out of fuel. He addresses the passengers, indicating that they have traveled back in time.  "All I ask of you is that you remain calm", he tells the passengers over the P.A. system, "...and pray".
caption: A Boeing 707
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