I also wondered about this plane explosion on TV. Was that really supposed to be live feed from the Munich terrorist incident? The Munich thing happened in 1972. So did the events of the movie took place in 1972? I don't think so. I guess it must have been some other incident. But it looked like a live broadcast, otherwise they would not have shown the plane just standing there for such a long time.
The point of including this in the movie was probably to show how numb and messed up the addicts were. They didn't even care about such tragic events.

it was to show that no matter what REAL stuff was going on outside in the world, the addict only cares about ONE SELF ONLY
The Fearmakers Blog
https://thefearmakers.blogspot.com/

This message has been deleted.

Just thoughts:
To show how fragile life is an how abruptly control of it can be lost
To show there are always people in more frantic and threatening siutatons
To keep the patients in "touch" with the outside world
To demonstrate man's apparent need for destruction, whether of himself or others
To illstrate how one wreckless or in that case psychotic decision can affect the world
Any other ideas?

Regardless of if it was real or not, what was the point of that scene anyway?

I think its referring to the Munich Olympics tragedy, which is the subject of the brilliant documentary "One Day In September". I could be wrong though.
From Wiki:
"The terrorist then pulled the pin on a hand grenade and tossed it into the cockpit; the ensuing explosion destroyed the helicopter and incinerated the bound Israelis inside".
Full article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_massacre