Alcoholic pilot, Ted Striker has developed a fear of flying due to wartime trauma, but nevertheless boards a passenger jet in an attempt to woo back his stewardess girlfriend. Food poisoning decimates the passengers and crew, leaving it up to Striker to land the plane with the help of a glue-sniffing air traffic controller and Striker’s vengeful former Air Force captain, who must both talk him down.

An “Airplane!”-style spoof of hospital soap operas: a brilliant young trainee can’t stand the sight of blood; a doctor romances the head nurse in order to get the key to the drugs cabinet; there’s a mafioso on the loose disguised as a woman – in other words all the usual ingredients present and correct, though in this case the laughs are intentional.