The planes' weapons load is extremely unsuitable for a prisoner transfer plane. Shotguns would be perhaps suitable to wipe out the entire plane in a major riot, but not to contain one. M-16 rifles are way too powerful and would punch more holes in the fuselage than prisoners, are much too bulky in close quarters, and don't offer anything to the guards' handguns couldn't - the plane just isn't big enough for distance accuracy to be a factor. Worst of all, it carries grenade launchers and explosive grenades. Using them in in the plane would be suicidal if the plane was on the ground, let alone flying. Granted, though, they do enable a battle scene. [The clear intent of the weapons in the belly of the plane was not for use on the plane but if the plane crashed. As explained only the pilot carried a secure pistol just in case of any hijacking. If the plane had to make an emergency crash landing, they would need to take the prisoners off the plane. Obviously they could not contain the prisoners with what they have on board. As for the choice of weapons. They were carrying some of the most dangerous prisoners in the country. With some of the connections they had if they came under attack, then they would need sufficient firepower. However it is purely a character choice what weapons are acceptable.]

After the prisoners start the trouble on the plane, the marshals use a taser on "Diamond Dog" Jones. One shot shows someone's hand on "Diamond Dog" shoulder. The shock would have surely travelled to whoever was holding him down. [Stun guns and tasers don't work like that. You can touch someone who is being tasered without the current passing from them to you.]

Poe handcuffs one of Cyrus' arms to the ladder of the firetruck, yet when Cyrus is launched off of the truck to the ground, he's still wearing the cuff and his arm has not been pulled off. [The other obvious thing that could have happened is that the ladder broke under the stress of the accident and Cyrus flew off it. The ladder had been through a lot up until that point.]

On two occasions you can see horizontal lens flare at the top of he screen. When they start digging on Lerner Field, and when the cargo door on the C-123 opens and they look at the dangling car. [This is not a mistake; those particular flares are due to the anamorphic lenses used to shoot the film, and many films, including this one, use them as a deliberate stylistic choice (director Simon West has said on several occasions that the flares are one of the reasons he likes the anamorphic format).]

The crash-landing in Las Vegas is totally unrealistic. a) The plane flies/approaches way too fast: a crash-landing would be attempted with minimum possible speed, but the C-123 is at full cruise speed. b) In one shot you can see that it's getting pulled and/or pushed from rest. c) The whole crash-landing takes way too long. All the obstacles that are getting hit (buildings, cars) would only slow it down. Even if brakes don't work, it cannot take that long to come to a halt. [This is a character mistake, there is no suggestion as to how good a pilot the con is, so he simply screwed up the landing. As for the plane taking too long to come to a standstill, it's called a 'willing suspension of disbelief'.]

After the fight at the airfield, Colm Meaney and John Cusack board the Cobra helicopters to act as weapons operators. How could they be better trained than the guys who were there originally? Would they even know what to do and just how likely is it that the average DEA agent or US Marshall would be able to operate the weapons system on a Cobra anyway? [The DEA agent wants the aircraft shoot down and Larkin wants to prevent that, that's why they both jump onto the choppers. This is a time of crisis, so probably the pilots took off with them. Plus the weapons system on a cobra can easily be operated by the pilot alone.]

When Johnny tries to rape the female guard, Poe comes to the rescue and knocks him out. Poe then handcuffs him to an overhead rail with both hands in the cuffs over the rail. Yet after the crash, while the police are doing clean-up, they drag away Johnny leaving one arm hanging off, as if Poe put only one of his hands in the cuffs, and one cuff on the overhead rail. Even with one arm severed, they couldn't naturally have got out of that position without the severed arm going over the rail, in which case it would be lying on the floor with the rest of him. [We don't see Johnny the whole time from the cuffing till the crash. There would have been enough time for somebody, even Poe, to uncuff one arm so that Johnny could be better prepared for the imminent crash.]

Cyrus takes over the plane and tells the pilot not to radio anyone and then leaves the cockpit, no one is watching the pilot why doesn't he report the take over on the radio? [Character mistake and not a real movie mistake.]

When Sandino attempts to flee Lerner Airfield in the chartered plane, all the other inmates look over at the plane and then chase after it as it begins to depart. Vince Larkin comes out of hiding and sprints alongside the plane to the tractor so he can sabotage the departure of the plane. If the inmates were able to see the plane taking off, wouldn't they have been able to see Larkin as well? [Before the plane takes off Larkin is already well out of the way of the hangar. Being that the inmates would be looking more behind the plane they would not likely see him. Also he is running alongside the plane on the other side of it, not in direct view of the inmates. So combined with the distance away from the inmates and on the other side there is no guarantee they would have seen him.]

At Lehrner airfield, when the awaiting drug smuggler's plane starts its engines and Cusack is blown backwards, the engines appear to "shoot" a flame out, such as an after-burner would create. However, this type of plane is not equipped with such engines and even if it was, they would cause too great a stress for the plane to handle. [It's a Rockwell EX60 'Sabreliner' private jet dating from 1969. You don't need an afterburner to 'shoot flame out', you need an obsolete plane with old, badly maintained jet engines like this one has.]

When Cameron Poe's lawyer tries to get him to plead guilty, it is called a plea bargain. This is a deal set up ahead of time with the prosecutor. If the judge rejects it, it goes to trial, the guilty plea does not stand. [The judge didn't reject the plea of guilty. He rejected the prosecutor's sentence suggestion, which he has every right to do.]

When the two people in the cockpit hear about the disturbance, the co-pilot decides to go out with a revolver. They would in reality have locked the door and waited to see what happened, and then possibly landed the plane. You don't need to be taught this. Anyone who has been trusted to fly a plane containing a load of dangerous convicts would have the common sense to not go out and see what has happened, but to lock the door and land the plane. [He wanted to be a hero. Really, characters in action movies do things a lot more stupid than this.]

When Larkin and several prison guards are checking Cyrus's cell, one suddenly stumbles upon the section where Cyrus has hidden all the blueprints, plans, letters and assorted paraphernalia and the lunch box. Don't you think the cell of a high profile and extremely dangerous prisoner that is under 24 hour video surveillance would prevent him from doing any such things? For example, where and how would he get the elements to create such a powerful explosive device locked away in a cell? Or if he was receiving a letter of possible criminal correspondence from the Spanish drug lord, don't you think it would be checked over many times to discover the content? Instead Larkin discovers this within seconds. Why would Cyrus just not destroy these documents instead of hiding them in a prosthetic brick made from soap or something? I don't see how he could have done under the heavy surveillance. [Someone has been heavily bribed to overlook these things being smuggled into Cyrus' cell. The letter in itself was innocent enough and could only be read with the aid of the "Last Supper" postcard, neither of which would attract much attention if it arrived in the mail. The blueprints and plans and so on are not something Cyrus can use from his cell, so the guards would not see much harm in letting him have it (and themselves profiting from it). The bomb contents would be more difficult, but smuggled in in seemingly innocent components unchecked by several bribed guards (all of whom would just see one or two parcels), it would not be impossible.]

When the undercover DEA agent is being briefed, he is told that he has two hours to get the drug kingpin to talk. The flight from Carson City, NV to Alabama is much longer then two hours. [The flight may be longer than two hours, but he may have been referring to the tape recorder, meaning that there was only two hours worth of tape.]

Colm Meaney says he has locked onto the C123, so he can fire missiles at it. Locked on with what exactly?  The Cobras appear to be carrying pods that can carry 2.75 inch unguided rockets (intended for ground targets, not planes) the only way he is going to get them to lock onto the C123 is if he gets out and does it himself with a padlock and chain. [He isn't a trained pilot. He is just saying 'locked on' meaning that the plane is in his sights. He doesn't know the technical language.]

When the villains have made their lousy landing at the airfield and the police are coming, Cyrus opens a box with shotguns and throws one to his fellow convicts. The next scene shows the convict catching the gun, and it has somehow turned into an M-16. [There were three different boxes. One (the one Cyrus opened) contained the shotguns, behind him was another box that contained the M-16's, and the third box on the left (the one Diamond Dogg opens) contained the grenade launchers that were used to blow up the propane tanks.]

Regarding the undercover DEA agent - during the inspection of the prisoners before boarding the plane, it is stated that no personal possessions are allowed on the plane... as the undercover agent is climbing the steps to board the plane, you can clearly see the outline of his wallet in his left hip pocket. [Agent Sims wasn't searched by the guards (Falzon, Bishop, etc...), he was searched by Agent Malloy. This would mean that Malloy wouldn't take the wallet away, and the rest of the guards probably wouldn't pay attention to Sims' rear-end, or suspect anything, because Sims had already been searched. After all, they didn't find the gun either.]

Virtually all pilots have the technology to secretly transmit a code that tells air traffic control there is a hijacking in progress, without having to say a word. [This is a modified airplane specifically designed to secure criminals. Would you really expect it to be hijacked? Larkin even said that the situation had never been contemplated.]

When Nicholas Cage is shot in the arm on the plane, you can clearly see that blood is shot out of the back of his arm, then a split second later you see the hole in the front of his arm appear. [Cage was shot in the front of the arm, causing the hole. The bullet would have passed through his arm causing another hole (and blood) at the back]

When Pinball is dropped from the plane, he hits the car as it is leaving a red light. The car is then hit from the rear really hard which seems odd since they just left a red light. Then the car is hit on the right side by a blue station wagon, so I guess someone ran a redlight 10 seconds late, but then that same blue car gets hit from behind meaning the guy behind him ran a redlight too... [They've just watched a human body plummet out of the sky and crush the bonnet of a car in front of them. Guess they might have been a little distracted, eh?]