[PW] ?movie/book id about plane crash in river

[Bristol Library]

Hello,
I have a patron who is trying to identify a book.  I'm not having any luck;
I'm wondering if he has confused two or more incidents.

He says it was "a famous book, translated into several languages, including
Polish"  about a real accident. He says the author is Jack Higgins.   I've
had no luck locating a book by Jack Higgins on this topic. There was a movie
made of the book. The plane was taking off from LaGuardia and crashed into
the river.  The pilot was an alcoholic and there is a scene where he is
trying to hide the bottle of liquor so that it won't be found.

I've tried IMDB using "plane crash river" and variants, but no luck.  I did
find a movie about the plane crash into the Potomac but it didn't seem to be
based on a book;, and information on at least two different crashes at
LaGuardia in which the plane went into the river but no movie.  And none of
the ones I've found cite an intoxicated pilot as being the cause. I've tried
Amazon and First Search but am not finding anything that fits all the
criteria.  I'm hoping someone will remember the scene in the movie so that
we can at least identify that and find out if it was indeed based on a book.

Thanks.

Jeanne