Production
Director John Moore scouted locations in Morocco and Australia before looking at, and quickly choosing, Namibia as the crash site. "Where most of the film takes place, was only a 20 minute-drive from the coastal town of Swakopmund." The Namib Desert location caused problems: cameras and other equipment had to be constantly cleaned of sand, and a "couple of hundred people were employed as 'dune groomers'" so that visual continuity could be maintained.
The set was the site of several mishaps:
- A ferry sank during transportation of a major set piece across a river, forcing the river bottom salvage of the aircraft fuselage.
- Jared Padalecki flipped his vehicle.
- Concluding the aerial filming sequences, the flying C-119G N15501 suffered a long gash under the right wing when a film truck backed under it and its driver misjudged the truck's height. A repair crew was flown in, the damaged segment reskinned and the aircraft flown back across the Atlantic.
- On June 3, 2004, camera operator and second unit cinematographer Ciaran Barry was "filming behind a plywood barrier intended to protect his equipment" when an 800-pound "fiberglass model plane propelled down an elevated track, bounced off a sand dune in the Namibian desert and crashed into his hut."
For the latter, in October 2009 a Los Angeles jury awarded Barry $3.95 million in damages for broken legs and neurological damage he received during the accident; $1.3 million of the amount was awarded for lost future income.
Four aircraft were used during the film:
- Fairchild C-119G, N15501 - flying shots. (still flying as of 2007, now part of the Lauridsen Collection at the Buckeye Municipal Airport, February 2010. )
- Fairchild C-119F, BuNo.131700 / N3267U - desert wreck.
- Fairchild C-119F, BuNo.131691 - Phoenix film prop.
- Fairchild C-119F, BuNo.131706 - Phoenix film prop.
A Phoenix that could be taxied but not flown was built for closeups. The Phoenix in flying scenes were done using a radio-controlled model and computer graphics, albeit not that convincing as a movie model.
Read more about this topic: Flight Of The Phoenix (2004 Film)
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