TV Reviews : ‘Miracle Landing’: A Docu That Could Use More Drama

The first crack in the ceiling of the passenger liner comes 30 minutes into “Miracle Landing” (Sunday at 9 p.m., Channels 2 and 8). Nothing remotely gripping happens up to that point. It’s a long time to wait. But to paraphrase a famous actress, fasten your seat belts--it’s going to be a bumpy ride.

Another TV movie wrenched from a true-life story, “Miracle Landing” is the saga of the Hawaiian airliner that lost a 20-foot section of its fuselage on an inter-island hop two years ago. Since we know that the plane landed safely and that no one was blown through the gaping hole in the roof of the plane, there’s no suspense--unless you like watching a lot of decompression and people’s hair getting blown around in the cabin.

The ordeal of the crew and the 94 passengers on that unforgettable flight, which finally skidded onto a landing strip in Maui like an open-air convertible, is not necessarily the stuff of a good action picture. It’s up to the film makers to keep us interested. They don’t.

Beginning with Wayne Rogers’ dull but resolute pilot, there’s little characterization developed in Garner Simmons’ formula teleplay. Here’s a case where doses of docudrama license would have improved the production.

Curiously, while the wind machine works overtime, the special effects fail to visually exploit that big jagged, cutaway section ripped out of the plane. One wind-blown head after another doesn’t make a movie.

But heroism, as it unfolded in the actual incident, abounds in the case of a flight attendant (nicely played by Ana-Alicia) who rises to the crisis.

For aviation buffs, the flight procedures in the cabin as the plane is splitting apart from “metal fatigue” were shot with the guidance of the real crew (notably pilot Bob Schornstheimer). Dick Lowry directed.