Did Flight Really Happen? The True Story Behind William 'Whip' Whittaker & Flight 277 (2024)

Flight follows the fictitious story of Flight 277 and its protagonist William 'Whip" Whitaker played by Denzel Washington, but there is a true story that inspired Flight. The movie was inspired by a real-life event involving a pilot actually inverting a commercial airplane in an attempt to stabilize and save the lives of its passengers. While the unique maneuver used in the movie as well as some of the circumstances surrounding the crash depicted in Flight were loosely based on the real-life event, the true story sadly did not have the same outcome as seen in Robert Zemeckis' movie.

Denzel Washington prepared for the role of Whip Whitaker by practicing on a flight simulator. Besides learning how to convincingly perform as a pilot, Washington also had to learn how to authentically behave like someone battling addiction. In Flight, Whip Whitaker confesses to being inebriated while piloting Flight 277 and saving the airplane from mechanical failure. The narrative raised moral and ethical questions about Whitaker's situation, having successfully saved most of the lives of Flight 277's passengers but also putting them in danger by flying the plane while intoxicated.

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Flight's 277 Crash Was Inspired By Alaska Airlines Flight 261

The Movie Used The Drastic Measures Taken By The Real-Life Crew As Inspiration

Flight 277 in Flight was inspired by the real-life Alaska Airlines Flight 261 which crashed into the Pacific Ocean on January 31, 2000. Flight 261 had taken off from an airport in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico, and was traveling toward San Francisco, California. It was meant to make one scheduled stop before reaching its final destination in Seattle, Washington. The plane malfunctioned and inverted for a short time before it crashed and killed everyone one board. All 88 people on board, which included 83 passengers and 5 crew members, did not survive the impact (via Medium).

Flight 277 in Flight was not based on a true story and was loosely inspired by the real events of Alaska Airline Flight 261. Brief instances of dialogue used in Flight were taken directly from Flight 261's CVR transcript, or the conversations that took place between the pilots in the cockpit and other messages given to crew members and passengers on the overhead speaker. Besides that, there are not many similarities between the fictional Flight 277 and the real-life Alaska Airlines Flight 261. The main reason why Flight 261 went down was a mechanical error due to improper maintenance. No survivors of Flight 261 were ever found.

William 'Whip' Whitaker Was Created For The Flight Movie

Whip's Battle With Addiction Was At The Center Of The Movie

The protagonist of Flight, pilot Whip Whitaker (Washington), was created for this, one of Denzel Washington's best movies and is not based on any real person. The character was imagined by screenwriter John Gatins after a having conversation with an off-duty pilot on a flight. The conversation made Gatins realize that even people as composed as commercial airliner pilots can have difficulties and struggles in their personal lives. This became the inspiration for Whip Whitaker in Flight, who battles addiction issues with both alcohol and illegal drugs. Although the hook of Flight centers around the fictitious heroic actions of Whitaker, the core of his story is mostly about his attempts to control his addictions.

Whitaker was created specifically for Flight to emphasize the isolation within his substance abuse, which is what drew director Robert Zemeckis to the screenplay (via The Hollywood Reporter). Zemeckis revealed that he understood Whip's sense of disconnection and compared it to a similar sense of feeling alone in the world that Marty McFly experienced in Back To The Future. Washington went on to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Actor for his portrayal of Whip Whitaker at the 2013 Academy Awards.

What Flight Changed About The True Flight 261 Story

The Real-Life Flight Was A Tragedy Without Any Survivors

Gatins, Zemeckis, and the creative team behind Flight changed almost everything from the true Alaska Airline Flight 261 story in order to tell its tragic tale of addiction and isolation. The fictional Flight 227 took off from Orlando and was meant to land in Atlanta. The plane crash in Flight also took place on land as opposed to the ocean.

The biggest change between Flight 261 and the plot of Flight is the number of causalities. In Flight, only six people were killed including four passengers and two crew members. Neither of the Flight 261 pilots had ever been suspected of being intoxicated while flying either and Alaska Airlines was not mentioned in the film. It was replaced with the fictional airliner South Jet Air.

Source: Medium, The Hollywood Reporter