Flight 221

International Flight 221 was a commercial flight from Berlin to Los Angeles aboard a 747 passenger jet. Passengers aboard included photographer Martin Belkin, the assassin known as Mandy, Mary Johnson, Paul Coulander and Georgia Coulander.

The plane had a capacity of at least 349 passengers, as well as 12 crew. The plane was separated into sections - 282 seats in coach class, 55 in the main deck (first class seating), and 12 in the world business class upper deck. When the plane took off on the day before the primary, it was at full capacity of passengers. ("Day 1: 1:00am-2:00am", "3:00am-4:00am", "4:00am-5:00am")

The crew manifest of Flight 221

Ira Gaines paid an employee at Flight 221's airline company to falsify records so that it appeared Belkin's seat was unoccupied. Mandy, whose seat was booked under the name Angela P. Elliott, boarded the plane and was seated next to him. Gaines hired Mandy to steal Belkin's identification so that Jonathan Matijevich, surgically altered to resemble Belkin, could gain access to a breakfast event at the Santa Clarita Power Plant and assassinate Senator David Palmer. ("Day 1: 12:00am-1:00am")

Destruction

Flight 221 took off from Tempelhof International Airport some hours before midnight on primary day, and was scheduled to land in Los Angeles shortly after 1:00am. Less than an hour before landing, Martin Belkin called Patty Brooks, David Palmer's campaign manager, to confirm the breakfast gathering in the morning. Mandy, seated next to him, started up a conversation with Belkin and the two started flirting and drinking heavily. Eventually they wound up having sex in the bathroom, where Mandy covertly stole his wallet, containing his ID. Mandy moved to the exit of the plane and murdered a flight attendant. She pulled a concealed bomb out from inside a fire extinguisher and detonated it seconds after blowing the door open and parachuting to the Mojave Desert. ("12:00am-1:00am")

The plane's wreckage on television

The wreckage of the aircraft spread debris over a large area, starting brush fires and making the task of locating survivors impossible. It was later established that all 360 people aboard the plane, mostly citizens of Eastern Europe, were killed. ("1:00am-2:00am", Findings at CTU)

Background information and notes

Flight 221 explosion, cut from the final episode

• "Day 1: 12:00am-1:00am" was scheduled to premiere on October 30, 2001, but after the attacks of September 11, it was moved back a week. Originally, there was a shot of Flight 221 exploding as Mandy jumped out, but it was removed due to these recent attacks. The original footage can be seen in Season 1's original trailer, here.
• The exterior shots of the plane are actually of Air Force One and were taken from Harrison Ford's movie Air Force One. The same footage is used in Seasons 2 and 4 for exterior footage of the real Air Force One and again in Season 6 for footage of Air Force Two.
• Findings at CTU claims that 257 people were killed in the crash, however this is contradicted by the numbers given in the episodes and Aaron Pierce's statement that there were no survivors.

Appearances

* — Wreckage only