In the goof section the contributor miss spoke when he called the Aircraft a 707. He was right about United flying DC8's. As an air traffic controller of over 20 years and after consulting my Janes Aircraft of the World, I am positive the United Airlines aircraft in the arrival scene is in fact a DC8.
shareIt sure looks like a DC-8, and he was also told of "a reservation on a DC-8", though for it's lack of windows it appears to be the cargo version and not the passenger version (there was limited seating behind the cockpit in the cargo version, similar to what was seen in Cast Away), since the passenger version of the DC-8 was retired long before the cargo, which was still being flown when this film was made in the mid-late '80s...
Still, it was McDonnell Douglas's version of the B-707 - both the cadillac of airliners, that's for sure...
In the movie, the sergeant who transfers Cronauer orders C. to board a DC-8. So I guess it's a goof within a goof.
I'm just wondering how the producers were able to get an actual DC-8 with the original United logo of that time and fly it. This movie looked like it had a lot of dough backing it.