If my memorey serves right the original "Commercial-Heavy-In-Flight-When-A-Nuke-War-Erupts" was a novel published in the early 80s called "Down To A Sunless Sea". Involved an 'Air Britain (?)' 797 (equiv to a 747-800I), a trashed Russian turboprop piloted by 2 horney-lookin Russki chicks (one of which the pommy skip bedded), and a trip for both aircraft from the Azores to McMurdo. The aviation and nuke sciences were completely stuffed as was the basic physics, and the storey had a real bummer ending.
Maybe SCBs will be a little more credible.