Swissair 747 in Argo?

[Speedbird1]

In the Oscar-nominated film, Argo, they show diplomats escaping from Tehran on a Swissair B747. The critics say this never happened. If true, how did they escape? Why was a SWR shown? What's the real story of the escape?

[gonzalu]

Most of what I've read states they actually used a DC-8 in real life, as the B747-300 used in the film was not only not part of the Swissair fleet until after the events, the other two they had in the fleet were on JFK route, not Iran.

And the CRITICS are not the only ones saying it... Huge fans of the film (myself included) also noticed the obvious misuse of the most iconic plane ever, especially in the 1970s. The whole scene is CGI anyway lol... so the best looking plane for the scene (which didn't even happen) was the 747. A DC-8 to us avia geeks would have been just as cool... but for a regular viewer, nothing beats the outline and mass of a 74.

[Speedbird1]

You are correct. After searching and searching, the aircraft was indeed a DC8-62, named Aargau, which did serve Tehran. It's registry was HB-IDL and was later sold to Capitol Air (as N924CL) then sold to National and finally to Airborne Express as N802AX through 2002. What happened to this historic aircraft is anybodys' guess but was probably used for spares. Swissair did have 2 742s at the time but they both came to JFK daily. I remember them well as SWR 110 and SWR 110, often seen arriving on Rwy 22L at JFK.

[disco stu]

I like when thing like this happen in the movies....It helps with a little game I play in the movies called "count the anachronisms". The winner gets a free Coke next time out at the movies.