Terrorists hijack a 747 carrying 400 passengers, and everyone involved mistakingly thinks the passengers are going to be bartered for the terrorist group's imprisoned leader. However, an American intelligence analyst and expert in terrorism believes that their plan is to launch a nerve gas attack on Washington DC. The President's Crisis Management Team must then choose between ignoring the agent's nerve gas theory and allowing the plane clearance to land in the Capitol, or destroying the plane and sacrificing its 400 passengers. A Special Forces leader, however, has a different solution--to secretly board the 747 using an experimental aircraft.