Night Flight to Murder

Quinn Martin enjoyed my work and always submitted a script to me if he thought I was right for the part.  John Conwell was his casting assistant, and I did get many calls from John.  I became good friends with him and his lovely wife, Maxine. -- David Hedison, July 6, 2007

Night Flight to Murder
William Conrad as Frank Cannon
David Hedison as John Sandler
Original broadcast: 17 Oct-1973
Writer: Carey Wilber
Director: Michael Caffey

A plane disappears from Corbett Municipal Airport in Utah. Even more perplexing, radio contact was maintained until final approach with no sign of trouble - then the plane simply never touched down.

Frank Cannon is sent to investigate the missing plane by the insurance company covering the $3 million in negotiable securities. With the assistance of John Sandler of the FAA, Cannon discovers that the pilot was a discredited commercial pilot, reduced to cargo flights. And Cannon soon discovers that the pilot had ties to unsavory sorts in nearby Las Vegas.

When the plane turns up abandoned in the Mexican badlands with a dead copilot, Cannon must juggle a pilot's daughter who maintains her father was a not a killer, a Vegas mafioso with his own agenda, and a cargo company owner with everything to lose.

As Cannon takes a crash course from John Sandler on the latest in plane navigation, he begins to suspect the pilot was duped and framed. But how do you fool an experienced pilot into landing in the wrong place when the plane is equipped with the latest in radio navigation aids?