Mercy Mission: The Rescue of Flight 771 (1993 TV Movie)

Sean Sturgess: Nervous Man

Quotes 

• Gordon Vette : Ladies and gentlemen? Ladies and gentlemen! May I have your attention please? I'm Captain Vette. Don't be alarmed, there's nothing wrong with this plane. But, we do have a rather unusual circumstance here. We have received a distress call from an American pilot, flying a light plane somewhere in this area. His instruments have malfunctioned and he doesn't know where he is. He's lost. He's running out of fuel. But Pacific called us, and asked if we could assist him. Now, there's no danger to us. We have plenty of fuel. With your permission, I would like to try and find him.

  [pause] 

  Enthusiastic Man : Well, let's go for it!

  Little Margaret : Mister Captain, how did he get so lost?

  Gordon Vette : Come here, darling. I'll try to show everybody. Now, you make believe that you're that little lost plane. How would you do that?

  [Margaret extends her arms as if she was an airplane] 

  Gordon Vette : Terrific. Okay. Turn around. Now, you've been flying straight for hours. Hours and hours. And, a mean old crosswind comes up and tries to roll you away from your destination so...

  [pointing at Derek, a little boy] 

  Gordon Vette : Come on, here, son. You play that mean old crosswind. You try to veer her off course.

  [Derek tries and pushes Margaret, but she resists] 

  Gordon Vette : That a boy! But the pilot was smart. Bigger than t the crosswind. Flying against it. But he got fooled, because the crosswind suddenly stopped.

  [Derek stops pushing her, and Margaret starts veering to the left] 

  Gordon Vette : The instruments on the pilot's craft didn't warn him. Now, the little plane was flying as hard as he could against nothing! What do you think happened?

  Little Margaret : He flew that way.

  Gordon Vette : That's right. And so he must be somewhere over there.

  Nervous Man : But, what was he doing out there, flying around without any navigation equipment?

  Gordon Vette : He has an instrument called Automatic Direction Finder, but it's malfunctioning.

  Enthusiastic Man : Oh yeah! Bloody mess!

  Gordon Vette : What do you say? Should we give it a try?

  [the children cheer] 

  Gordon Vette : All right! Look out there, everybody! Gotta be somewhere! And thank you!

  [Gordon walks back to the flight deck] 

  Vanessa Cross : Gordon, you are an old smoothie!