Coming in Hot: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Pretty much every movie, TV series, or whatever that involves an Aircraft Carrier (or its [[The Battlestar|spacefaring]] or [[Airborne Aircraft Carrier|flying]] equivalent) will at some point feature a sequence where an aircraft, damaged or otherwise in less than perfect flying condition, has to make an emergency crash landing on the deck of the carrier. Cue the tense music, the landing signals officer patiently talking them down over radio, the deck crew erecting a crash barrier, the fire-suppression teams suiting up and grabbing their extinguishers and hoses, et cetera. May include [[Stock Footage]] of real crash landing accidents on carriers, often [[They Just Didn't Care|hilariously]] involving [[Just Plane Wrong|different aircraft]] from a [[Did Not Do the Research|different era]] than the one depicted in the story.

 

 

 

* Mu La Flaga crash-lands his Skygrasper more than once onto the ''[[Carrier Battleship|Archangel]]'' in ''[[Gundam Seed]]'', eventually wrecking it for good and moving on to pilot [[Humongous Mecha]]. {{spoiler|Neo Roanoke}} in ''[[Gundam Seed Destiny]]'' does exactly the same thing soon after his [[Heel Face Turn]], {{spoiler|awakening memories which indicate that he ''is'' (a [[Easy Amnesia|brainwashed]]) Mu La Flaga}}.

* The pilots of ''[[Area 88]]'' frequently attempt to land damaged or burning planes at the eponymous air base, mostly because they have to personally pay for replacements.

** The requirement of paying for their own planes and munitions led one [[Red Shirt|pilot]] to attempt this with a [[Too Dumb to Live|full load of bombs]]. No spoilers required for you to guess [[Stuff Blowing Up|what happened next]].

* In the first ''[[Gall Force]]'', [[Ace Pilot|Lufy]] is introduced to the crew of the ''Star Leaf'' when she decides to use their landing bay for one of these.

 

* ''G.I.Joe'': Half the time the pilot characters were featured, they ended up landing a damaged plane somewhere.

* ''Marvel Universe'': The X-Men's Blackbird explodes more time then a Star Trek: Voyager shuttle. The Avenger's Quinjets had a much, much worse track record. As for the Helicarriers, heck, they have an open field in New Jersey already picked out to smash them if they start acting funny over New York.

 

* ''[[The Core]]'' - The Space Shuttle has its navigation thrown off by changes to the Earth's Magnetic field, and has to make a dead-stick landing in the Los Angeles River. Not technically an example of this trope, but it has much the same feel.

** Notably the film's script originally had the shuttle blow up on re-entry, but then the ''Columbia'' accident happened and several scenes were hastily re-filmed as it was [[Too Soon]]. This does mean one character's motivations now make no sense, but hey, it's ''The Core''.

* Parodied, of course, in ''[[Hot Shots]]''. Topper asks for permission to land his damaged plane. Then he reports that his landing gear is frozen. And that he lost his radar. And that he's out of fuel. Oh, and he just lost a wing. And there goes the other. He eventually crash-lands his <s>plane</s> mangled fuselage on the deck. Vertically.

** Also in the book, Jackson's backseater is injured, and would have probably been killed in an ejection. Had this not been the case, it is likely that he would not have risked the landing in his damaged Tomcat. Also, the plane in the book was damaged not by a collision but by a missile fired by an over-excited Soviet pilot who thought he was under attack.

** And the mule-swallow manoeuvre from the opening of the film - whilst the mule wasn't damaged to any great extent, it was certainly coming in hot. In fact, those very words might actually have been used...

* The ''[[Star Wars]]'' prequel trilogy comes close twice, both times with Anakin Skywalker involved. In Episode I, he accidentally crash-lands in the docking bay of the Droid Control Battleship. In Episode III, he and Obi-Wan intentionally crash-land in the docking bay of the Separatist star destroyer to board the ship and rescue the kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine.

** Not to mention the "Not to worry, we are still flying half a ship," scene shortly after that, when Anakin crashlands ''literally'' "half a ship." After almost burning it to a crisp on its descent through the atmosphere. Obi-Wan even says "we're coming in too hot!".

* [[Airplane!]]!

** [[Sequelitis|Likewise]], [[Airplane!]] 2.

 

== [[Literature]] ==

** Probably the most memorable is from ''[[X Wing Series|Starfighters of Adumar]]'', in which we hear the Legend Of Tomer "Ejector" Darpen, a Y-Wing pilot forced to [[Space Plane|use the ship's landing skids]] after the repulsorlifts were damaged in a battle. The trope is played entirely straight, with a makeshift runway being hastily cleared, the ship bouncing up and down as he tries to land, ''rolling over completely'', skidding to a halt at the very limit of safety, and the pilot slumps in relief. Then it's immediately subverted when Darpen's ejector seat misfires. Since he was stationed on a low-gravity moon, he actually achieved escape velocity and had to be retrieved from orbit. [[Snark Bait|One of the members of Red Flight saw his expression just before and after it fired]]...

* In a variation of this, a sequence near the beginning of ''[[The Sixth Battle]]'', an Su-25 pilot is trying to land on ''Varyag'' and keeps getting waved off. It's not the plane that's in bad condition- it's the pilot, who excessively tired, makes a fatal error and crashes into the ski-ramp.

 

== [[Live Action TV]] ==

*** The re-imagined series also gives us "combat landings," similar in execution, though not in set-up. When the ''Galactica'' needs to jump ''now'' and the Vipers are out, they'll disregard good landing technique in favor of just crashing their fighters onto the flight deck. Note that, in this series, it makes sense to take this risk, since the fighters are literally irreplaceable, and ejecting and being recovered really isn't an option. Ditching the fighter in ths case also means ditching the pilot.

*** Actually, there were at least two on-screen occasions of an ejected pilot being picked up by a Raptor flying SAR, though these happened either when there was no battle, or it was over: Hot Dog ditches after being severely damaged covering Starbuck during a training flight in season 1, while Apollo has to ditch from the Blackbird in season 2 after it proved ''too'' stealthy (and was crashed into by a Cylon raider). Starbuck also survived after ejecting (same fight that Hot Dog got recovered from), but she ''wasn't'' recovered by the SAR; she had to steal herself a crashed raider and fly that back.

** As a flight cadet, Boomer in the Re-Imagined Series gets into hot water with Adama over her poor landings, {{spoiler|and the subsequent second chance he gives her leads to her repaying this debt in a vital way at the climax of the series.}}

*** {{spoiler|She could have saved people a lot of trouble by repaying that debt a few episodes earlier.}}

** To be totally fair, the captain was ordered not to stop the ship, and was merely following orders.

** Galen also comes in hot one time.

** This is for good reason as saying "Stay away from the front of the event horizon", as Rodney was hit by a Wraith stunner shot in an [[Stargate Atlantis|Atlantis]] episode opening

** Indeed, a botched carrier landing is what forced Harm to leave the "brownshoe navy" and join the JAG corps in the first place. The botched landing was more due Harm's night blindness problem than a plane issue.

 

 

== [[Web Comics]] ==

 

== [[Western Animation]] ==

* In an episode of American Dad Stan attempts a sex act with his wife Francine by barreling down a water slide to meet his wife at the bottom. When he realizes that his speed is higher than safety will allow he shouts "I'm coming in hot!" ending in a disastrous collision.

 

[[Category:Combat Tropes]]

[[Category:Tropes On a Plane]]