I believe Richard Attenborough starred in the film where a group of raf men are stranded in a desert with their plane during world war two and whilst watching you believe them all to be alive but find out at the end of the film that they are ghosts. It is not Sole survivor or the Flight of the Phoenix but thanks for the suggestions. Any more ideas
Further to my answer on the 'film' section, you are definately confusing the 2 films. The plot as described is Sole Survivor (although they were US airmen with a B25 Liberator) and the one with RA in is Flight of the Phoenix , where RA plays the co pilot of a cargo plane with James Stewart as pilot and Peter Finch as a British Army Captain (amongst others).