At the 'base camp' where the aircraft was being repaired, the American flag had four full rows top to bottom and the bottom row three quarters row of stars. I googled historic flag designs and did not see anything comparable.
shareI didn't notice that until I read your post. So when I watched my DVD again for the umpteenth time, I saw the flag. I speculate that the studio's prop department had to fabricate the 48-star flag because none were available on the market. So it's possible the prop department workers glued the stars on. In the strong wind of the location, some of the stars on the bottom row must have come loose and flown away. It's possible the director may have later noticed that in editing but it was too late and too costly to film the scene again. The studio correctly decided that few people would have noticed the defect, instead paying more attention to what the mechanic was doing in the scene. It worked, since even I didn't notice.
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