If they loved it once....In the wake of the $45 million gross of the original Airport (1970), Universal was all but required by an Act of Congress to produce Airport '75 . Charlton Heston heads the all-star cast as Alan Murdock, the air traffic controller who must keep a disabled 747 from crashing in flames. The crisis begins when a businessman ( Dana Andrews ), flying his small private plane, suffers a fatal heart attack. The small plane smashes into the cockpit of the 747. Following Murdock's radioed instructions, stewardess Nancy Pryor ( Karen Black ) takes over the controls and tries to negotiate a safe landing. The special-guest passenger lineup includes Helen Reddy as a singing nun (a character wickedly satirized in the 1980 parody Airplane! ), Myrna Loy as an alcoholic, Gloria Swanson as Gloria Swanson (or a reasonable facsimile) and Sid Caesar as a chatterbox. While Airport '75 yielded only $25 million at the box-office, the franchise was too good to let go at this point: hence, Airport '77 . — Hal Erickson