How could the crash in "Airport 1975" actually have happened?

The Baron could have been on the opposite leg, and then might have strayed from the pattern and in front of the 747 after the pilot had a heart attack (I think the pilot had a heart attack in the movie?). But anything is possible in Hollywood.

Unfortunately, there are some rough parallels in real life. PSA Flight 182 comes to mind, and that wasn't a movie.

There has been numerous mid air collisions - PSA 182 was not the only one -

Aeroméxico 498, Cerritos, California 1986 (a DC9) collided with a Piper PA-28 -

British Airways 476 Trident, mid air with Inex Adria DC9 - Yugoslavia 1976 -

Gol 1907 (737) collided with Embraer 600 Bizjet in Brazil, 2006 -

I can get you dozens of such collisions examples -

Will it get better and safer in the skies...? - NO - absolutely not...!

In the old days, not-so accurate altitude hold and VOR flying was not accurate -

Airplanes were 1 mile left or right off course and 100 or 200 feet off altitudes -

So, they often had "near miss" - That was a blessing...!

Now, with MNPS/RVSM and GPS accuracy, airplanes are right on flight level -

Within 5 or 10 feet of altitude and 10 yards left/right of track -

Means there will be MORE COLLISIONS in the future -

I have to admit one thing, and I am retired, you can revoke my licence -

When I flew in Africa, with bad ATC, I often selected altitude hold 100/200 feet OFF -

So maybe I would have missed the other airplane and just get scared as hell -

If you are smart, when ATC clears you FL 350, select 35,100 ft on altitude hold -

This will possibly save your life, and your 200 or 300 passengers...

You might be as qualified as I am as a pilot -

But as far as experience, I got more experience than you have -

.

Yeah, it's a movie......

If you watch the police chases, in one scene it is a black car chasing a white car, and then they switch the picture, and it is a brown car chasing a green car.

How about all the bullets flying, because the bad guys are using automatic Uzis, and the cops down everyone with their 9mm's.

The same thing happens in airplane movies.

The laws of physics do not apply in movies. It is called artistic license. Most artists have never studied physics.

Mid-airs can and do happen. Hollywood was never known to follow the laws of physics though.

maybe the driver that was driving was running out of fuel or he couldn't control the plain