Striker: (trying to keep the crashing plane under control) Mayday! Mayday! Mayday!
McCroskey: Mayday? What the hell is that for?
Johnny: Mayday? Why that's the Russian New Year. You know, we'll have a big parade, we'll serve hot hors d'oeuvre...

McCroskey: I want the best available man on this, a man who knows that plane inside and out and won't crack under pressure.
Johnny: How 'bout Mr. Rogers?

Rumack: What was it we had for dinner tonight?
Elaine: Well, we had a choice, steak or fish.
Rumack: Yes, yes, I remember, I had lasagna.

Striker: Surely there must be something you can do.
Rumack: I'm doing everything I can, and stop calling me Shirley.

Reporter: What kind of plane is it?
Johnny: Oh it's a big pretty white plane with red stripes, curtains in the window and wheels. It looks like a big Tylenol.

[Looks around, confused -- He hears the echo]
Hello! (...hello! ...hello!) Echo! (...echo! ...echo!)
[Stiffens]
Pinch hitting... for Pedro Borbon... Manny Mota... Mota... Mota...!
I guess the foot's on the other hand now, isn't it, Kramer?

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit amphetamines.

Johnny  : This? Why I could make a hat, or a brooch, a pterodactyl. . .
Reporter : What kind of plane is it?

[To camera, after being rejected by Elaine] What a pisser.

Striker: Surely you can't be serious?
Rumack: I am serious. And don't call me Shirley. Note: this exchange is ranked #79 in the American Film Institute's list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema.

Tower: Flight two-zero niner, you're cleared for take-off.
Capt. Clarence Oveur: Roger.
Roger Murdock: Huh?
Tower: L.A. departure frequency one two three point niner.
Capt. Clarence Oveur: Roger.
Roger Murdock: Huh?
Victor Basta: Request vector, over.
Capt. Clarence Oveur: Huh?
Tower: Flight two-zero niner, cleared for vector three-two-four.
Roger Murdock: We have clearance, Clarence.
Capt. Clarence Oveur: Roger, Roger. What's our vector, Victor?
Tower: Tower Radio, clearance, over.
Oveur: That's 'Clarence Oveur', over.
Tower: Roger.
Roger Murdock: Huh?
Tower: Roger, over.
Roger Murdock: What?
Capt. Oveur: Huh?
Victor Basta: Who?

Mostly, I remember the nights when we were together. I remember how you used to hold me and... how I used to sit on your face and wriggle and—

Rumack: Captain, how soon can you land?
Capt. Oveur: I can't tell.
Rumack: You can tell me, I'm a doctor.
Capt. Oveur: No, I mean I'm just not sure.
Rumack: Well, can't you take a guess?
Capt. Oveur: Well, not for another two hours.
Rumack: You can't take a guess for another two hours?

They're coming right at us! (exits control tower via window)

Loneliness, that's the bottom line. I was never happy as a child... Christmas, Ted, what does that mean to you? It was living hell. Do you know what it's like falling in the mud and getting kicked, in the head? With an iron boot? Of course you don't, no one does, that never happens. Sorry, Ted, it's a dumb question, skip that.