10 May 1960
Cone of Silence (also known as Trouble in the Sky in the United States) is a 1960 British drama film directed by Charles Frend and starring Michael Craig, Peter Cushing, George Sanders, and Bernard Lee. The film is about the investigation into a series of crashes involving the fictional 'Atlas Aviation Phoenix' jetliner. Cone of Silence is based upon the novel of that name by David Beaty, which is loosely based on the 1952 crash in Rome and subsequent investigations into the structural integrity of the de Havilland Comet airliner.
The title refers to a technical term used in the Low-frequency radio range. An identification of a range's cone of silence is shown early in the film.
Storyline
In Britain, at the dawn of jet-powered commercial aviation, an aircraft manufacturer tries to shift the blame from mechanical failure to pilot error when its newest jet airliner has a series of accidents.