Not a bad movie, but really dopey dialogue

I just saw this film for the very first time on TCM. I can't believe I've never seen it in the fifty years since it was made, and I've seen a lot of movies. I got interested in it, (I've always really liked "disaster" movies) but as it went along it really got bogged down with some dopey dialogue and some long drawn-out flashbacks. Also, at times it almost looked like a parody when some of the passengers on the plane would be "thinking out loud" and giving those raised eyebrow looks like they were deep in thought. The disaster doesn't even occur until the last fifteen minutes of the film and then it seems like it wasn't developed all that well because they used up most of the screen time on those unnecessary flashbacks. But I have to admit, I still enjoyed watching the film, I have definitely seen worse.