A group of travelers celebrate conquering their fear of flying by boarding TransContinental Airlines’ Boeing 747-200 for TransCon Flight 110, a long-haul hop that circles around Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. The mood in the cabin shifts from relieved to tense as the jet cuts through the sky, until a Czech terrorist seizes the opportunity and hijacks the flight, unveiling a toxin stored in the cargo hold and a detonator he brandishes to intimidate the crew. He forces himself into the cockpit and makes a chilling demand: land at Seattle or a nearby airport, though dreadful weather over Seattle makes that impossible for the moment. The captain pleads for patience, offering the hijacker a choice between waiting out the storm or detonating the device.
In the ensuing chaos, Elliot [Jeffrey Nordling] joins the fray; he is a passenger who asserts control after a brutal confrontation, subduing the crew and declaring himself in charge. The captain is knocked unconscious as the assault escalates, and the plane shifts from a routine flight to a high-stakes hostage crisis. Amid the confusion, Martin Messerman [Craig Sheffer], an aerospace engineer, notices that the detonator has shifted and suspects Elliot’s dangerous maneuvering. He teams up with Jessica [Jennifer Beals], a fellow passenger, to alert Seattle’s air traffic control and to piece together the hijack’s true danger. The crisis pivots on the fate of cargo box A45114, which contains the deadly toxin, and on a race against time.
Martin and Jessica manage to reach Robert Sikes [Tom Berenger], the Seattle air traffic controller, using a VOR system that Elliot initially overlooks. They learn that the toxin must be dropped over water within seven minutes to avert catastrophe, and they race to implement a precarious plan. Elliot—who has shut off the VOR to sever their line of communication—becomes more dangerous as the clock winds down. To reach safety and buy time, Martin deploys the 747’s spoilers, slowing the aircraft to a precise descent toward 10,000 feet so the cargo door can be opened without causing a catastrophic decompression. With the door ajar, he and Jessica locate the toxin in cargo box A45114 and prepare its controlled release, hoping to avert a ground disaster.
The tension peaks as Elliot shoots and fights the pair, expending ammunition while the ground crew orders a missile strike from the USS Bremerton to bring the aircraft down. In a dramatic turn, Elliot activates the detonator, but Martin and Jessica succeed in dropping the toxin out of the plane before detonation can occur. The Bremerton missile is redirected and ultimately aborted as authorities realize the immediate danger has been neutralized.
Elliot responds with a desperate escalation, bringing a passenger named Wilcox into the cockpit and forcing a brutal standoff with Martin. As the confrontation unfolds, Martin uses his grounded expertise to outmaneuver the hijacker, broadcasting the crisis to the control tower and federal agents. A tense chase spills onto the tarmac, with Trevor, Martin’s son, briefly appearing in the terminal area during the crisis, and Elliot’s henchman pursuing on the ground. A final struggle ends with Elliot wielding a wrist spike and Martin delivering a decisive, fatal stab, ending the threat once and for all.
In the aftermath, Martin is finally reunited with his son Trevor [Dillon Moen] and Jessica, and the three share a quiet relief as they prepare to leave the scene. The moment is punctuated by a personal reunion with Seattle’s air traffic controller, Robert Sikes [Tom Berenger], who steps in to greet them as the passengers begin to disembark, signaling a return to ordinary life after an extraordinary crisis. The flight, its danger contained, closes with a sense of cautious triumph and the sense that the survivors can go home.
