History Main / MakeItLookLikeAnAccident

* In 1994, a FedEx cargo plane was hijacked by a disgruntled employee, Auburn Calloway, who intended to use the plane in a suicide attack on FedEx headquarters, while somehow making it look accidental, as his death in an accident would enable a payoff from the $2.5 million life insurance policy he had taken out on himself. Riding along in the jumpseat, he used hammers to attack the flight crew hitting each in the head, injuries which would be virually indestinguichable from those incurred in a crash. Despite severe injuries, the captain and flight engineer retaliated, and a struggle began with the two attempting to pin Calloway, while the co-pilot stayed at the controls. A former navy pilot, he began turning the plane in a wild, unpredictable manner intended to keep Calloway off balance, nearly rolling it on its back and taking it near uncontrollable speed. Eventually Calloway was pinned, and the captain, also former navy, took control and began an immediate landing. Due to trauma and blood loss, all three were losing strength, and they needed to get on the ground or risk Calloway breaking loose again, so there was no time to dump fuel. They had to land overweight, at a dangerously steep angle, at a recklessly fast speed, but [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome the captain pulled it off]]. Calloway was arrested, but the flight crew was too injured to ever fly again.

* A subversion appears in ''PracticalMagic''. Sally is trying to get her sister Gillian safely away from abusive boyfriend Jimmy Angelov. Sally accidentally poisons him (she was only trying to put him to sleep), but the police officer who shows up is ''convinced'' it's really murder.

* Subverted in ''[[HitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy And Another Thing]]'' where the dragons of Asgard are instructed to kill [[spoiler:Zaphod Beeblebrox]] by accident, and to make it look intentional.

** Also subverted in "Mayored to the mob": The mayor, due to plot unrelated actions, got the mob anger on himself. cue Fat Tony to say on television that the mayor has to look out. "Because accidents happen all the time. Like the killing of you. By us."

---> '''[[BattleButler Gorim]]:''' What a troublesome individual. Shall I have him killed, my lord?
---> '''[[PlayerCharacter The Warden]]:''' Yes, but make it look like an accident.
---> '''Gorim:''' ''(briefly goes away, then returns)'' Word has been sent my lord, he won't live past the hour.
-->-- DragonAge

--> '''Leonard:''' Well, that's how I'm gonna make it look.

* DoctorWho: The End of Time
--> The previous governor met with an accident that took quite some time to arrange.

* In BuffyTheVampireSlayer episode "Dead Things", Warren Mears makes Buffy believe she killed Katrina by accident. A bit of a subversion, as Katrina's death was an accident, but not on Buffy's part.

* This is part of Scar's [[ManipulativeBastard bastardry]] in ''TheLionKing,'' when he [[spoiler:[[YouShouldKnowThisAlready kills Mufasa]]]] and convinces Simba that it's his fault.

* In ''{{The Lion King}}'', [[TheChessmaster Scar]] tells the hyenas during [[VillainSong Be Prepared]] that they're going to kill Mufasa and Simba. Later, when they've [[YouShouldKnowThisAlready killed off Mufasa]], Scar has pulled the strings (so to speak) to make it look like it was all an accident caused by Simba.

** Man, Chill must suck at his job, then. How in the heck is mugging and shooting someone an "accident"?
** It looks like a random mugging gone wrong, rather than a planned murder.

** Actually, [[spoiler: Tenpenny]] actually dies in a traffic accident. [[spoiler: He accidentally drives off a bridge when being pursued by the main character.]] The main character wants to shoot his body a couple of times just to get rid of his anger, but his friends tell him not to do so because the deceased now just died in an accident and nothing can lead the cops to the main character.

* In The Godfather you occasionally have to make hits look like an accident.

** The previous governor met with an accident [[spoiler: that took quite some time to arrange]].
** Beautifully [[SubvertedTrope subverted]] in The Time of Angels when the security office chasing River Song on board the Byzantium tells his Goons to wait for River to run, and then shoot her ... to make it look like an ''execution.''
*** He said "Try to NOT make it look like an execution". Which is really just playing this completely straight.

-->'''Mr. Reaper:''' What happened here, Danny?\\
'''Danny:''' Traffic collision.\\
'''Reaper:''' Nasty way to go.\\
'''Danny:''' Why don't we refer to it as an "accident" again?\\

* Parodied in a MitchellAndWebb sketch where ThoseTwoBadGuys are chastened because they misinterpreted their instructions and just waited for months for an accident to happen.

--> Brendon: We could exchange murders. Criss-cross.

* "Foxdie" in ''MetalGearSolid'' is a genetically engineered virus that can be customized to only infect people with specific DNA sequences to make them either a carrier or cause a heart attack within 5 to 15 minutes. [[spoiler:It's secretly injected into Snake by Naomi at the beginning of ''Metal Gear Solid'' to make sure that nobody who knows about Liquids and Ocelots plan leaves the island alive. Nine years later it turns out the virus was even programmed to kill Snakes clone father and surrogate mother, who have been presumed dead or missing for decades. So when Snake meets his mother for the first time and finds out his father hadn't died, they get both killed shortly after.]]

* In {{The Secret Of NIMH}} his is how [[spoiler: Jenner almost gets away with murder.]]

* A zigzag version in the ''AlfredHitchcockPresents'' episode "The Orderly World of Mr. Appleby (written by RoaldDahl): Mr. Appleby successfully kills his first wife by making it look like she tripped and fell on a rug (that he pulled out from under her), but [[spoiler: his second wife is suspicious and leaves a note with her attorney to call the police should something untoward happen. The attorney calls to check on her, and when going to answer the phone she really ''does'' trip and fall on a rug!]]

*In 1994, a FedEx cargo plane was hijacked by a disgruntled employee, Auburn Calloway, who intended to use the plane in a suicide attack on FedEx headquarters, while somehow making it look accidental, as his death in an accident would enable a payoff from the $2.5 million life insurance policy he had taken out on himself. Riding along in the jumpseat, he used hammers to attack the flight crew hitting each in the head, injuries which would be virually indestinguichable from those incurred in a crash. Despite severe injuries, the captain and flight engineer retaliated, and a struggle began with the two attempting to pin Calloway, while the co-pilot stayed at the controls. A former navy pilot, he began turning the plane in a wild, unpredictable manner intended to keep Calloway off balance, nearly rolling it on its back and taking it near uncontrollable speed. Eventually Calloway was pinned, and the captain, also former navy, took control and began an immediate landing. Due to trauma and blood loss, all three were losing strength, and they needed to get on the ground or risk Calloway breaking loose again, so there was no time to dump fuel. They had to land overweight, at a dangerously steep angle, at a recklessly fast speed, but [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome the captain pulled it off]]. Calloway was arrested, but the flight crew was too injured to ever fly again.[[/folder]]