"The Odyssey of Flight 33" is episode 54 of the

American television Television is one of the major mass media outlets in the United States. , household ownership of television sets in the country is 96.7%, with approximately 114,200,000 American households owning at least one television set as of August 2013. ...

anthology series ''

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology television series created by Rod Serling. The episodes are in various genres, including fantasy, science fiction, absurdism, dystopian fiction, suspense, horror, sup ...

'', the 18th episode of the second season. An unlikely break of the time barrier finds a commercial airliner sent back into the prehistoric age and then to New York City of 1939. The tale is a modern telling of the ''

Flying Dutchman The ''Flying Dutchman'' ( nl, De Vliegende Hollander) is a legendary ghost ship, allegedly never able to make port, but doomed to sail the seven seas forever. The myth is likely to have originated from the 17th-century Golden Age of the Du ...

'' myth, and was written by series creator

Rod Serling Rodman Edward Serling (December 25, 1924 – June 28, 1975) was an American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, and narrator/on-screen host, best known for his live television dramas of the 1950s and his anthology television series ...

. It originally aired on February 24, 1961 on

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Opening narration

Plot

Boeing 707-138B Qantas Jett Clipper Ella N707JT

Global Airlines Flight 33 is en route from

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. About 50 minutes from

Idlewild Airport John F. Kennedy International Airport (colloquially referred to as JFK Airport, Kennedy Airport, New York-JFK, or simply JFK) is the main international airport serving New York City. The airport is the busiest of the seven airports in the Ne ...

, Captain Farver and his crew notice that the

ground speed Ground speed is the horizontal speed of an aircraft relative to the Earth’s surface. It is vital for accurate navigation that the pilot has an estimate of the ground speed that will be achieved during each leg of a flight. An aircraft diving ve ...

of their

Boeing 707 The Boeing 707 is an American, long-range, narrow-body airliner, the first jetliner developed and produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. Developed from the Boeing 367-80 prototype first flown in 1954, the initial first flew on December 2 ...

is rapidly increasing beyond all reason. Their

true airspeed The true airspeed (TAS; also KTAS, for ''knots true airspeed'') of an aircraft is the speed of the aircraft relative to the air mass through which it is flying. The true airspeed is important information for accurate navigation of an aircraft. Tr ...

remains constant, so there is no risk of the plane breaking up. They can no longer contact anyone by radio. The plane travels through a flash of light and severe turbulence; the captain wonders if they have gone through the sound barrier. There is no apparent damage to the aircraft. Still unable to contact anyone on the ground, and at the risk of potential collision with other aircraft, Farver finally decides to descend below the clouds. The crew is able to identify the coastline of

Manhattan Island Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the List of co ...

and other geographic landmarks, but there is no city. The crew realizes that they have traveled far back in time when they see grazing

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...

s. Their only hope of returning to the present day is to increase altitude and speed in an attempt to catch the same 'jet stream'. After another flash of light and violent shaking, New York City is once again visible, and although they still cannot contact Idlewild, they are able to reach

LaGuardia Airport LaGuardia Airport is a civil airport in East Elmhurst, Queens, New York City. Covering , the facility was established in 1929 and began operating as a public airport in 1939. It is named after former New York City mayor Fiorello La Guardia ...

. However, the

air traffic controller Air traffic control specialists, abbreviated ATCS, are personnel responsible for the safe, orderly, and expeditious flow of air traffic in the global air traffic control system. Usually stationed in air traffic control centers and control ...

on the radio does not understand their technological references. The controller eventually clears the aircraft to land at LaGuardia, but orders the captain to report to the

CAA CAA may refer to: Law * Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 of India ** Protests regarding the Citizenship (Amendment) Act * Copyright assignment agreement, to transfer copyright to another party * Clean Air Act, United States law to reduce air ...

office afterward; the captain remarks that they haven't called the

Federal Aviation Administration The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is the largest transportation agency of the U.S. government and regulates all aspects of civil aviation in the country as well as over surrounding international waters. Its powers include air traffic ...

by that name in years. The copilot spots the buildings and structures from the New York World's Fair of 1939 below. The captain briefly considers using LaGuardia to refuel before making another attempt to return to 1961, but he rejects the plan because LaGuardia's runway is too short to handle a Boeing 707. As he attempts one more ascent before the fuel runs out, he addresses the passengers, explaining that they have traveled back in time. "All I ask of you is that you remain calm," he tells the passengers over the P.A. system, "...and pray."

Closing narration

Production notes

Serling originally developed the idea for the show when he learned that

American Airlines American Airlines is a major US-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, within the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. It is the largest airline in the world when measured by fleet size, scheduled passengers carried, and revenue passeng ...

had a

mockup In manufacturing and design, a mockup, or mock-up, is a scale or full-size model of a design or device, used for teaching, demonstration, design evaluation, promotion, and other purposes. A mockup may be a ''prototype'' if it provides at lea ...

of a 707 interior, previously used for flight attendant training, that they would make available to TV or film production companies. Serling's brother, aviation writer Robert J. Serling, helped Serling with the cockpit dialogue for the show by discussing the show's premise with a

Trans World Airlines Trans World Airlines (TWA) was a major American airline which operated from 1930 until 2001. It was formed as Transcontinental & Western Air to operate a route from New York City to Los Angeles via St. Louis, Kansas City, and other stops, with F ...

captain; after the show aired, several pilots later wrote to say that they thought the cockpit dialogue was among the most authentic ever in a television show.Stanyard, Stewart T. ''Dimensions Behind The Twilight Zone: A Backstage Tribute to Television's Groundbreaking Series.'' ECW Press, Toronto, 2007, p. 143. The

Brontosaurus ''Brontosaurus'' (; meaning "thunder lizard" from Greek , "thunder" and , "lizard") is a genus of gigantic quadruped sauropod dinosaurs. Although the type species, ''B. excelsus'', had long been considered a species of the closely related ...

model and miniature jungle set from the 1960 film '' Dinosaurus!'' were used for the

stop motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

animation. LaGuardia Airport, although it had opened in October 1939 (and thus was open during the second half of the 1939–40 World's Fair held in New York), was not officially named after Mayor

Fiorello H. La Guardia Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (; born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia, ; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City fr ...

until 1947; up to that point, its official name was New York Municipal Airport. However, the nickname "LaGuardia Field" was in common use two weeks after the airport opened.

Graphic novel

This episode was one of several ''Twilight Zone'' stories adapted as a graphic novel. The adaptation expands upon the television episode, including a subplot involving several passengers and flight crew, as well as updating the story to 1973. It also adds a time jump to the future.Listing of graphic novel ''The Odyssey of Flight 33''
on Amazon.com

References

*DeVoe, Bill. (2008). ''Trivia from The Twilight Zone''. Albany, GA: Bear Manor Media. *Grams, Martin. (2008). ''The Twilight Zone: Unlocking the Door to a Television Classic''. Churchville, MD: OTR Publishing.

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Odyssey of Flight 33, The 1961 American television episodes The Twilight Zone (1959 TV series season 2) episodes Television episodes about dinosaurs Television episodes about time travel Television episodes set in New York City Television episodes set in prehistory Fiction set in 1939 Fiction set in 1961 Television episodes written by Rod Serling