Directed by Eric Laneuville, the film stars Richard Dean Anderson, Stephen Root, Jane Leeves, Robert Loggia and Daphne Zuniga and the script closely follows the book.
Head flight attendant Barb Rollins (Jennifer Savidge) notifies Holland of the emergency, and the Captain and his check pilot, Daniel Robb (Richard Lawson) set a course for London's Heathrow Airport,.
The U.S. President (Edward Herrmann) unsuccessfully tries to sneak Flight 66 into RAF Mildenhall, disguised as a United States Air Force fighter plane and guided in by another, despite a recommendation otherwise by Ambassador Lee Lancaster (Robert Guillaume), but the British forces at the base jam the runway with emergency vehicles.
Flight 66 lands at the U.S. air base in Iceland, but one passenger is so distraught at being separated from her child and at being in quarantine that she runs down the airplane stairs and is shot and killed by U.S. troops in MOPP gear.
The first part received a 16.5 rating and 24% share of the audience, NBC's best November miniseries performance since Billionaire Boys Club in 1987.