episode #16 - Pilot Error

episode #3 of 2nd season / Air Date: 9/27/74    written by Edward J. Lakso    Directed by Jerry Jameson

A short survival tale with some extra baggage thrown in. Austin is to be an expert witness in a hearing to determine if a recent airplane accident was due to pilot error by a senator/general (Pat Hingle). As it happens, the senator was the one who pushed through the $6 million in funds a couple of years ago for Austin's parts, so Oscar Goldman feels he owes the senator a debt. In an odd scene, Goldman tries to pressure Austin to testify in the senator's favor and Austin will have none of it.
All of this gets pushed aside by sudden events: the senator, Austin, the senator's aide (Alfred Ryder) and the senator's son all jam into a single-engine flyer for the trip and get into the middle of a storm. They end up, after a rough landing, in the middle of a desert. Austin ends up blinded by a hot oil leak. At this point, the story is a remake of a TV movie from a couple of years earlier, Family Flight (1972), about a foursome needing to survive some days under the hot desert sun (this also makes some of the episode a bit off-kilter, since one moment they are flying in the rain and then they are landing in the sunny desert).  The aide resents Austin and tries to trick him into getting bitten by a rattlesnake. In the end, a blind Austin needs help from the senator's son and a smart female air traffic controller. It's not too exciting but fairly well done for a TV episode. BoG's Score: 6 out of 10
Bionic Trivia: besides copying that TV movie mentioned above, this episode also uses footage from it; as the plane with the 4 people flies off, there's a scene with several air traffic controllers, one of whom is played by James B. Sikking; this is all footage from Family Flight, as they watch the plane go out of sight; the landing in the desert is also footage from the TV movie. Star Trek TOS actor alert: Ryder had appeared in the 1st episode of TOS to air, The Man Trap