plane swerves violently when it loses a propeller and the engine catches fire. The crew quickly extinguishes the fire, but the engine has twisted off its mounting. In mid-ocean, the crew radios for help, assisted by an amateur radio operator aboard the steamer S.S. Cristobal Trader, and sets in motion a rescue operation. Dan discovers that the airliner is losing fuel from damage to a wing tank and that as a result, along with adverse winds and the drag of the damaged engine, the plane will eventually run out of fuel and be forced to ditch. Unassuming fisherman José Locota disarms Agnew and confiscates the gun, compelling him to sit quietly. Broadway producer Gustave Pardee, who up until now has made no secret of his fear of flying, inspires calm in his terrified fellow passengers. Dan calmly explains the situation, trying to lessen their anxiety, but warns that their chances of making the coast are "one in a thousand." The passengers rally around each other and find changed perspectives about their existing problems. In San Francisco, Operations Manager Tim Garfield, who redeemed Roman's career by hiring him at TOPAC, arrives at the airline's operations center but is not sanguine about their chances. A favorable change in the winds and the arrival of a Coast Guard rescue B-17 to escort them raises the crew's hopes that they have just enough fuel to reach San Francisco. Wilby, however, discovers that in his nervousness he made an elementary error in navigation and their actual remaining time in the air is less than he originally calculated. Garfield sends Sullivan a suggestion for conserving fuel that he fears Sullivan will disregard as disparaging his flying ability. Dan's experience tells him that their luck would be better trying to make land than ditching in the rough seas at night, and he recognizes that fear rather than judgment is governing Sullivan's decisions. When Sullivan panics and prepares to ditch immediately, Dan slaps him back to his senses. Dan adjusts the controls without Sullivan's permission to save gas. A recalculation of the remaining fuel convinces Dan the fuel supply is barely sufficient to reach San Francisco if the tail winds continue to increase, which persuades Sullivan to make the gamble. As the airliner approaches rain-swept San Francisco in the middle of the night and at a perilously low altitude, the airport prepares for an emergency instrument landing. The