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Crash-Course Landing: Difference between revisions

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Crash-Course Landing (view source)

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== Anime & Manga ==
* A variation in ''[[Pokémon (Animeanime)|Pokémon]]'' had Max and Gym Leader Tate taking instructions from Tate's father to land a ''rocket ship''.
* The ''[[Detective Conan]]'' [[Non-Serial Movie]] ''Magician of the Silver Sky'' features a particularly intricate (or contrived) example: {{spoiler|after poison incapacitates its pilots and a lightning strike disables the autopilot and radio, high school girls Ran and Sonoko must manually land an airliner (that is also missing one engine and almost out of fuel) on an unlit pier. Fortunately they have help from high school detective Shinichi Kudo (in the person of Conan disguising his voice, calling them from an intercom phone to talk them through the procedure) and flamboyant thief Kaitou Kid (who manipulates the dozens of police cars chasing him into forming up as makeshift runway lights).}}
 
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* ''[[Mad Magazine]]'' recently parodied this in a segment for "[[Discredited Trope|obsolete movie clichés]]" where a flight attendant has to activate the automated emergency landing sequence, which doesn't require her to do much at all.
* Subverted in ''[[Y the Last Man|Y: The Last Man]]'' when airline stewardess Beth II tries to land the aircraft after the male pilots die in the [[Gendercide]]. The plane crashes, killing all but three of the passengers. She later realises that the automatic landing system had already been set and if she'd just left the controls alone they would likely have landed safely.
* An issue of the ''[[Barbie]]'' comic featured Barbie having to land ''the space shuttle'' like this. The comic justified with the claim that because Barbie already knew how to fly planes, flying the shuttle was easy to learn in a matter of moments.
 
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** The theme of food poisoning from eating fish was inspired by the 1971 movie ''Terror in the Sky''.
* This almost happens in ''Airport 1975'', when the chief stewardess ends up flying a 747 after a mid-air collision. ''Almost'', because George Kennedy and the U.S. Air Force managed to drop [[Charlton Heston]] into the airliner's cockpit so he could land it instead.
* Can overlap with [[I Know Mortal Kombat]], if the civilian plays piloting games obsessively, a la ''[[Snakes Onon a Plane]]''.
** This trope is [[Lampshade|Lampshaded]] in the movie when the stewardess says "I can't believe I'm saying this" before the trope's calling card "Is there anyone who can fly a plane" line.
* ''Turbulence''
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*** At least partially plausible. Commercial aircraft are required to have manuals and checklists available for the crew to reference. Hell, the checklists are so centrally important to the operation of the aircraft (they came into being after a Boeing test plane crashed because someone missed a step while landing) that the pilots almost have a checklist for dropping a deuce. The heros would have to know about the checklist, where to find it, and of course what to do with the information in it (if you don't know what "Kts" means, you're hosed.)
*** Which the hero and the flight attendant together could figure out easily enough, he with the basic flight training could understand much of the terminology, and she who works on the plane probably at some point noticed where the pilots keep all the manuals. Presumably on the only bookshelf in the cockpit.
* In the movie ''[[Its a Mad Mad Mad Mad World|It's aA Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World]]'', Ding and Benjy are forced to make one of these landings after their pilot falls unconscious after drinking too much while flying.
* The 1986 movie ''Panic in the Skies'' involves Kate Jackson and Ed Marinaro having land the plane after the pilots are dead. The Air Force decides whether to shoot the plane down to avoid from crashing into the city.
* The Doris Day movie ''Julie''.
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* As mentioned, ''[[Myth Busters]]'' proved this trope is plausible. They just can't call it confirmed because there is no actual recorded incident of it in [[Real Life]], and it was done in a simulation (which they did fail without help though).
* An episode of ''[[Walker, Texas Ranger]]'' (insert [[Memetic Badass|Chuck Norris Joke]] here).
* ''[[Magnum, PIP.I.]]'' did it, referencing several movies where it had occurred. Higgins is the one talking him in and, unfortunately, fails to tell him how to stop the plane once it is on the runway; causing him to crash after he's landed.
* ''[[Chuck]]'' did this with a helicopter.
* ''[[Bugs]]'' did this in an early episode where a disgruntled computer scientist was hacking into an autopilot system he designed in order to get them to pay him royalties on the system.
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* ''[[Cheers]]'' subverts this; Sam and Diane go up in a three person plane, and the pilot{{spoiler|, a massive prankster, fakes a fainting spell}}, whereupon they are forced to get air-traffic control to walk them through it; the radio shorts out just as the Air Traffic Controller says "This is very important; whatever you do, don't-".
* In a first season episode of ''[[Mighty Morphin Power Rangers]]'', the villains, in a rare moment of brilliance, attempted to kill Kimberly by sneaking her uncle a sleeping potion just before he took her, Bulk, and Skull up in his airplane (the two bullies also sipped the potion). The presence of civilians meant she couldn't simply teleport away, and so this trope was brought in to save the day.
* It was probably inevitable that ''[[Wings (TV series)|Wings]]'' would utilize this, and they did. In the second season episode "Airport '90", Brian takes Helen up so she can practice flying. Sure enough, Brian falls during some turbulence and is knocked out cold, and Joe must talk Helen through the landing.
* The pilot movie for ''[[San Francisco International Airport]]'' (as seen on ''[[MST3KMystery Science Theater 3000]]'') has one subplot revolving a boy who steals a light airplane; Parnell Roberts' character has to talk the boy through how to land the plane. Justified by having the plane in question being "easy to fly", and the boy having a fan's knowledge of aircraft to build on.
* Subverted on ''[[Desperate Housewives]]''. When the pilot of a small plane has a heart attack and dies while flying, his wife (the only passenger) can't find a safe place to land, so she crash-lands the plane onto Wisteria Lane, killing herself and several people on the ground.
* An episode of ''[[The Incredible Hulk (TV series)|The Incredible Hulk]]'' had David being the one who had to land the plane, while supressing his [[Hulk Out]] from the pressure of doing it.
* The [[Derren Brown]] special ''Hero at 30,000 feet'' leads up to the subject (with a major fear of flying) being put on an airplane and told that the pilot had passed out. After volunteering to land the plane, he was put into a trance during which the plane was landed normally, and he was moved to a flight simulator. He landed the plane in the simulator successfully.
* In an episode of the ''[[A-Team]]'', the team takes over a plane from the bad guys, only to have Murdock blinded. Hannibal and Face land the plane, with Murdoch giving instructions.
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* Mentioned on an episode of ''[[QI]]'', in which they refer to a study that showed that only one in ten American pilots of private planes could safely land a commercial airliner in simulation.
* [[The Hardy Boys Nancy Drew Mysteries]]: ''The Strange Fate of Flight 608'' has all three jet pilots knocked out by some weird drug...leaving Frank and Joe Hardy to fly the plane. In a hurricane. In the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. Without any radio help, and the one semi-conscious pilot falls asleep mid-instruction. Guess who manages to crash-land in the middle of the ocean?
* One episode of ''[[The Unit (TV)|The Unit]]'' had Brown and Gerhardt talking a guy down whose pilot had died on him. Apparently the man in question was former black ops, and somebody higher up had it out for him as their rescue attempt was repeatedly interfered with. First the pilot died, then somebody called the base and told them to stop helping -- which they chose to disregard -- and finally somebody jammed their radios as the guy was on approach.
 
 
== Music Videos ==
 
* The music video for "Learn to Fly" by the [[Foo Fighters (Music)|Foo Fighters]]. The entire flight crew and most of the passengers on a flight that the Foos are on are [[Mushroom Samba|incapacitated]] by coffee that had been accidentally drugged (during a guest cameo by [[Tenacious D]] at the beginning of the video), requiring the Foos to leap into action to land the plane themselves. Ironically, the Foos were not taken out by the coffee because they were drinking cocktails instead.
 
== Video Games ==
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== Webcomics ==
 
* ''[[Penny Arcade]]'' has fun with this [http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2000/1/19/ in this strip]. A la ''[[Snakes Onon a Plane]]'', one of the non-pilot staff asks if anybody knows how to fly a plane. Gabe, [[I Know Mortal Kombat|who has played a lot of flight and space-sim video games]], volunteers and... asks the co-pilot to divert power to the forward shields.
* Steve of ''[[Irregular Webcomic]]'' eventually lands a plane during a ''[[Snakes Onon a Plane]]'' [[The Parody|parody]].
 
== Western Animation ==
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* Happened in an episode of ''[[The Flintstones]]'' when Fred is taking piloting lessons. Barney ends up with Fred when he's taking the license test. Fred got himself ejected out from his plane after a mishap from flying in restricted area and leaving Barney behind. Fred instructs Barney from the radio on landing the plane safely.
* The ''[[Garfield and Friends]]'' episode "Skyway Robbery" also had this plot point halfway through. After Jon, Garfield, and Odie have taken off in the rundown plane that they boarded (thanks to [[Con Man|Mr. Swi]][[Meaningful Name|ndler]]), the plane starts to have problems after the pilot bailed out, leaving the three in the dark about how to land the plane. It was fortunate that Jon was able to contact the air control tower who starts to talk them down. However, when the air control officer tells them how to work the plane, Jon doesn't know which control to use, but when said officer begins describing the controls in a way that Garfield understands (the air control officer began using food and pasta-related terms because he was having spaghetti), Garfield was able to flawlessly land the plane back on the ground again.
* Similarly, this was also used in the ''[[Codename Kids Next Door (Animation)|Codename: Kids Next Door]]'' episode "Operation: H.O.L.I.D.A.Y.". Lizzie is forced to take the controls of the plane after Numbuh Two and Numbuh Three both became incapacitated after inadvertently taking a bite from the pie that Lizzie was going to give to Numbuh One. Numbuh One was forced to give Lizzie instructions on how to fly and land the plane. The episode even threw in this amusingly clever [[Shout-Out]] to [[Airplane!]]:
{{quote| '''Numbuh One''': Surely you'll realize you don't want to crash?<br />
'''Lizzie''': ''[on the radio]'' '''Who is Shirley?!?!?!''' }}
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