Originally Posted by
jkearns
Even earlier: Arthur Hailey wrote a screen play (1956 -- Flight into Danger) and book (1958 - Runway Zero-Eight) that used this plot device.
As long as we are on the subject, Airplane! is a parody of the movie Zero Hour! in which the passengers and crew also get food poisoning and someone on the plane must now land. It's just not as funny and a lot more suspenseful.
A connection between the two movies (other than many of the character names) is that anytime the exteriorof the 707 is shown, the sound is actually of a piston airplane. Also, the shot is very similar to the exterior shots used in Zero Hour.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0051221/