History Main / CaptainCrash

[[quoteright:350:[[DuckTales http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rosenberglaunchpadactingcasual.jpg]]]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"If it's got wings, I can crash it!"]]

** The first-published comic arc in that series, The Rebel Opposition, makes it necessary to mention Hobbie's squadronmate Tycho. He put on Imperial guise and reported in saying that his TIE had crashed. They gave him a new one. He flew on a mission, was shot down by his own X-Wing (long story), [[EjectionSeat ejected and survived]], then returned to the Imperial base. They gave him a new one. Then he betrayed them. In fairness, these [=TIEs=] are apparently so light that an X-wing they are chasing can easily [[http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/653/swrstro311.jpg get]] [[http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/7724/swrstro312.jpg behind]] them, and so incredibly fragile that [[http://img355.imageshack.us/img355/3060/swrstro308.jpg a Wookiee swinging a stick]] can [[YouFailPhysicsForever shred their wings]]

* The absent-minded Admiral in ''HotShots!'' gives us this line:

* Whistler the heron in ''TheAnimalsOfFarthingWood'' constantly crashes upon landing in later episodes and land on another animal. His age catches up on him impacting his flying ability.

He's supposedly an accomplished captain/pilot/driver, but whenever he gets behind the controls of any vehicle, he crashes it.

Even if he's in the desert with nothing to crash ''into'', he'll somehow find a way. To his credit, the crashes are survivable, so he does have that going for him.

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* In GunsmithCats, Rally Vincent wrecks her car on multiple occasions despite proving her worth in multiple street races. At one point it is even mentioned that she can't GET insurance anymore.

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* In ''[[StarWars The Empire Strikes Back]]'', Luke crashes his Tauntaun, his snowspeeder, and his X-wing. This is all within an hour of the opening crawl.

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** Lee "Apollo" Adama should also bear mentioning. He doesn't necessarily wreck a lot of stuff, but he has a penchant for wrecking important stuff. From the mini-series he manages to first disable his father's old fighter and then utterly trash it before the the end. He goes on to wreck the only stealth fighter another character spend an entire episode fabricating. And then he wrecks [[spoiler: The Pegasus, the more advanced of the pair of battlestars.]] It's a wonder why Daddy keeps giving him the keys.

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* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Smith Edward Smith]]: First he was captain when a ship called the RMS ''Olympic'' collided with a British warship. Then ''Olympic'' lost a propeller blade and she returned to her builder for emergency repairs. Then he was captain when a ship called the RMS ''{{Titanic}}'' sailed from Southampton to New York City. [[ItWasHisSled Perhaps you have heard about what happened during that voyage]].
** In fairness to Captain Smith he had had some twenty years of uneventful sea experience before that. The simple fact is Olympic and Titanic were ''much'' larger than his previous ships and required a whole new type of seamanship - a fact neither he nor anybody else appreciated.
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus Christopher Columbus]] crashed his flagships on three of his four voyages to America. On his first voyage, the ''Santa Maria'' ran aground and sank off Hispaniola. Second, the ''Niña'' ran aground on a small island near Cuba and suffered badly, but remained afloat. On the fourth, two of Columbus's ships were intentionally grounded off Jamaica because of severe storm damage.

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* In ''KnightsOfTheOldRepublic 2'', Atton manages a total of four crash-landings - twice on Telos, once on Dxun, and once on Malachor V. The first three involved getting shot out of the sky, while in the last case there probably wasn't any way to make a smooth landing on the planet in question.
** To his credit, Carth from the first game only crashes the ''Ebon Hawk'' once, despite how many times it was shot at.

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* In ''StarTrek: Generations'', the first time Deanna Troi takes the helm is the ''only'' time the Enterprise crashed into a planet. An entire ''planet''. How do you manage not to avoid a '''planet'''!?
** Gravity can be a harsh mistress when your engines are dead and you're riding the shockwave from an explosion.
** Although Doctor Crusher took over once during the series and not only managed to not crash, she ''flew it into'' (the outer edge of) ''a star'' and [[CrowningMomentofAwesome blew up a Borg ship]] with her skeleton crew.
** "He's supposedly an accomplished pilot..." (From the trope description). Neither Troi nor Crusher have pilot's training of ''any kind.'' This is rather like complaining that a random passenger can't fly a 747 without assistance, if you multiply the relative complexity of the task by about ten.
** ''On StarTrekVoyager'', meanwhile, Chakotay crashed enough shuttles for it to become a joke among fans.

* This is pretty much Chakotay's nickname in ''[[StarTrekVoyager Star Trek: Voyager]]''. He ends the second part of the pilot episode crashing his original ship into a Kazon cruiser, and nearly every shuttle he touches from then on is doomed.

[[DuckTales http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/rosenberglaunchpadactingcasual.jpg]]
[[caption-width:350: "If it's got wings, I can crash it!"]]

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* As the quote above says: Launchpad [=McQuack=]. Throughout ''DuckTales'', it's a marvel anyone gets in a plane he's piloting. He really is a [[CripplingOverspecialization very accomplished pilot]], capable of taking off on any surface, flying through any storm, and weave through any enemy air space, but he can't land without crashing.
** {{Lampshaded}} in the ''Duck Tales'' movie, when Launchpad confesses that his flying leasons were a [[IncrediblyLamePun crash course]].
** [[SubvertedTrope Hilariously subverted]] in ''The Golden Goose'' when Launchpad attempts to crash on purpose, [[SpringtimeForHitler only to land perfectly]] - Launchpad may crash all the time, but he's so good at wrecking his planes that he's an expert at crashing ''safely.''

* Hibiki from ''KamenRiderHibiki''; especially ironic since Kamen Riders tend to be [[BadassBiker Badass Bikers]] (where do you think the "Rider" came from?).
** Actually a case of WriterRevolt. [[DolledUpInstallment Hibiki wasn't supposed to be a]] KamenRider show, since it was based on a completely unrelated manga by KR's creator, ShotaroIshimori. [[ExecutiveMeddling The sponsors just wanted to shoehorn it into the Kamen Rider series due to brand recognition]]. The show's original writing staff had nothing but contempt for them and would subvert the living hell out of the various Rider cliches they were forced to add every chance they got... which is probably why they were all fired & replaced by corporate meatpuppets and the show promptly JumpedTheShark.

* [[SinbadTheSailor]] had a bad habit of getting shipwrecked in his stories.

* [[1001ArabianNights Sinbad]] had a bad habit of getting shipwrecked in his stories.

** Heh, good ol' Killboy.

* This far and no mention of [[GundamWing Heero Yuy]]? To be fair he is utterly lethal in mobile suit combat, but the number of suits he's totalled or seriously damaged defies belief. He has had at least two Leos and the Mercurius shot out from under him, as well as wrecking Wing Zero in Endless Waltz (although that [[RasputinianDeath took some doing]].) And then there is Wing Gundam. Poor, poor Wing Gundam. To date, Heero has crashed it into the ocean, attempted to self-detonate it, attempted to blow it up with torpedoes, actually self-detonated it, then finally had it shot out from under him before getting his MidSeasonUpgrade. One has to wonder what Trowa was thinking when he lent him Heavyarms...

** [[SubvertedTrope Hilariously subverted]] in ''The Golden Goose'' when Launchpad attempts to crash on purpose, [[SpringtimeForHitler only to land perfectly]].