crash site. Cast Vince Edwards as Maj Michael Devlin Richard Basehart as Brig General Russell Hamner William Shatner as Lt Col Josef Gronke Lou Antonio as Tony Lawrence P. Casey as Gant Dennis Cooney as Brandy Brad David as Elmo Patrick Wayne as Mac (credited as Pat Wayne) Alan Caillou as Corey Timur Bashtu as Beddo Noah Keen as MG Schurm Ian Abercrombie as British co-pilot David Cannon as Capt Patrick John Winston as British pilot Julie Bennett as Amanda Bart Burns as Older Senator Vin Scully as himself (voice of a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball game heard on radio) Production Sole Survivor was shot primarily on location in the El Mirage Dry Lake in the northwestern Victor Valley of the central Mojave Desert, within San Bernardino County, California. The shooting schedule involved a three and half-week period in May–June, 1969. The aircraft that were used in the film were: Cessna 310 North American TB-25JN Mitchell c/n 108-34254, s/n 44-30979 Sikorsky H-19B c/n 551050, N860 Historical background In 1943, the actual aircraft - Lady Be Good - failed to find its airbase near the African coast after a bombing raid on Naples. Instead the crew mistakenly flew on hundreds of miles into the desert. This was because the navigation system could not distinguish between a direct or reciprocal bearing contact. The same radio bearing would be returned whether the bomber was inbound or outbound from its base. Eventually as the B-24's fuel ran out, the nine-man crew bailed out into the Libyan desert. The eight survivors tried to walk to safety; their remains were eventually found in 1960 some 80 to 100 miles north of the wreckage site. The aircraft broke into two pieces upon impact. When it was found in 1958 by an oil surveying team, the bomber's remains were well-preserved with edible food and water still on board. Its machine guns and radio were also still in working order. Reception Sole Survivor aired on January 9, 1970, and was the first of made-for-TV movies broadcast on CBS, and produced by CBS-owned Cinema Center Films (the company's short-lived foray into feature film production). Sole Survivor was released in Region B/2 in a DVD/Blu-ray dual disk set on March 14, 2016. Film aviation historian Simon D. Beck in The Aircraft-Spotter's Film and Television Companion (2016) described Sole Survivor as "a tense, well-crafted story." References Notes Citations Bibliography Beck, Simon D.