St. Helens (film)

St. Helens, aka St. Helens, Killer Volcano, is a 1981 made for cable HBO film directed by Ernest Pintoff and starring David Huffman, Art Carney, Cassie Yates, and Albert Salmi. The film centers on the events leading up to the cataclysmic 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in Washington state, with the story beginning on the day volcanic activity started on March 20, 1980, and ending on the day of the eruption May 18, 1980.

During the first earthquake, a flight of quail becomes disoriented and smashes into the windshield of an Aerospatiale SA341G Gazelle helicopter being used for logging operations. Pilot Otis Kaylor lands the helicopter, only to be accused of nearly killing a group of loggers.Shortly afterward, David Jackson a fictionalized analog of reallife volcanologist David Johnston, a United States Geological Survey scientist, is sent to investigate the activity. Upon arriving in the small town of Cougar a reallife town locatedmiles south of Mount St. Helens, he quickly befriends a single mother named Linda Steele played by Cassie Yates, a waitress at a fictional restaurant named Whittakers Inn. While there, he stirs up concern with the owner, Clyde Whittaker Albert Salmi, and a group of farmers and loggers. ........

Source: Wikipedia