Shelley (and William Devane) in promo pics
for Freefall: Flight 174, 1995
Shelley starred in the TV movie Freefall: Flight 174 in 1995. Originally titled Falling from the Sky: Flight 174, it was based on a true story. The film was a dramatization of Air Canada Flight 143, the Canadian domestic passenger flight between Montreal and Edmonton nicknamed the "Gimli Glider." It was a brand-new Boeing 767 that, in 1983, lost fuel mid-flight and "freefalled" its way to safety. The flight crew was able to successfully glide the plane to an emergency landing at a former Royal Canadian Air Force base in Gimli, Manitoba, which had been converted to a racetrack, Gimli Motorsports Park. There were no serious injuries to passengers or persons on the ground, and only minor damage to the aircraft. The film is gripping and keeps you on your seat.
Freefall: Flight 174 was included
in the 10 Extraordinary True Stories
DVD set, 2014
In the film, Shelley starred as as Flight Attendant Lynn Brown. William Devane played Captain Robert Pearson, a former glider pilot who has performed many deadstick landings. Mariette Hartley played Beth Pearson, Robert's wife. Nicholas Turturro played Air traffic controller Al Williams. Scott Hylands played First Officer Maurice Quintal. In 2014, Freefall: Flight 174 was included in a 10 True Stories Collection DVD set. It was included in the 10 Extraordinary True Stories DVD set along with First Do No Harm (Meryl Streep), Sharing the Secret (Mare Winningham), The Other Woman (Jill Eikenberry, Lloyd Bridges), Behind The Mask (Donald Sutherland, Matthew Fox), Trial by Fire (Keith Carradine), Deadly Whispers (Tony Danza), To Live For a.k.a. My Last Love (Nancy Travis), Death In The Shadows (Peter Strauss), and Gone In The Night (Shannen Doherty).
