Flight Into Danger

Archie Panjabi stars in a tense conspiracy thriller about the mystery of a missing aircraft

As British Global Air Flight 716 travels from New York to London Heathrow, a terrifying incident occurs on board and the plane vanishes over the Atlantic Ocean, leaving the fate of its 256 passengers and crew unknown. Is it due to a mechanical fault or terrorism? Was the pilot, Richard Donovan, to blame? Or is there another chilling reason why the aircraft has vanished?

That’s the premise of Universal’s high-octane six-part thriller Departure, starring British actress Archie Panjabi as accident investigator Kendra Malley, who works for the TSIB (Transport Safety and Investigations Bureau).

INTRIGUE

When her mentor, the bureau’s chief Howard Lawson (Christopher Plummer), asks her to lead the investigation into the missing plane, Kendra races against time to find any potential survivors and determine what happened.

‘When I read the first script, I couldn’t put it down – it kept me on the edge of my seat,’ says Panjabi, best known for her role as fiery lawyer Kalinda Sharma in US drama The Good Wife. ‘As soon as you have one suspicious character, new evidence comes up and you’ve got another. But Kendra keeps an open mind. She’s determined to get to the truth. Only a few women are accident experts, so she’s a tough cookie.’