History Main / BuzzingTheDeck

* ''Series/MidsomerMurders'': Done with murderous intent in "The Flying Club". The murderer is flying a light plane and chases the second VictimOfTheWeek, who is on the ground. The murderer buzzes him low enough to strike his head with the landing gear of the plane, killing him. During the MotiveRant at the end, Barnaby acknowledges it was an exceptional piece of flying.

* In the 1995 HBO movie ''Film/TheTuskegeeAirmen'', an airman is discharged for this, and commits suicide as a result.

* ''Series/{{Andor}}'': On Aldhani, TIE Fighter pilots are known to pilot their TIEs low to the ground to disturb and harass the local indigenous population. One of them even buzzes Cassian Andor and the Aldhani crew when they are simply minding their own business.

* In John Winton's 1967 novel ''HMS Leviathan'', about a troubled aircraft carrier, a mentally unstable misfit pilot buzzes the conning tower several times seeking to pluck up the nerve to commit suicide by crashing into it, so as to take the ship's hated senior officers with him. He badly botches his suicde and after he goes kamikazi, the ship needs emergency refit.

** One pilot buzzes ships on a French canal, forcing a barge to crash and a smaller boat to capsize. this is so that he can perform the feat of flying ''underneath'' a bridge, with feet to spare on all sides. He boasts about this and browbeats another pilot into doing the same. Unfortunately it has rained a lot since the successful feat and the river level has risen. so when the second pilot attempts to fly under the bridge...

* Outraged from not being allowed to fly their aircraft as part of France's World War 1 victory parade, French Air Force pilots decided to protest by choosing one of their own to fly under the Arc de Triomphe. After the first volunteer was killed practicing for the stunt, a substitute, Warrant Officer [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Godefroy Charles Godefroy]] completed the task on August 7th, 1919 with tactically placed film crews on hard to document the event.

* This by WWII Japanese fighter ace Saburo Sakai(from his wiki page) "On the night of 16 May, Sakai and his colleagues, Hiroyoshi Nishizawa and Toshio Ota, were listening to a broadcast of an Australian radio program, when Nishizawa recognized the eerie "Danse Macabre" of Camille Saint-Saëns. Inspired by this, Nishizawa came up with the idea of doing demonstration loops over the enemy airfield. The next day, his squadron included fellow aces Hiroyoshi Nishizawa and Toshio Ōta. At the end of an attack on Port Moresby that involved 18 Zeros,[10] the trio performed three tight loops in close formation over the allied air base. Nishizawa indicated he wanted to repeat the performance. Diving to 6,000 ft (1,800 m), the three Zeros did three more loops, without receiving any AA fire from the ground. The following day, a lone Allied bomber came roaring over the Lae airfield and dropped a note attached to a long ribbon of cloth. The soldiers picked up the note and delivered to the squadron commander. It read "Thank you for the wonderful display of aerobatics by three of your pilots. Please pass on our regards and inform them, that we will have a warm reception ready for them, next time they fly over our airfield". The squadron commander was furious and reprimanded the three pilots for their stupidity, but the Tainan Kōkūtai's three leading aces felt Nishizawa's aerial choreography of the "Danse Macabre" had been worth it."

* In ''Mutant Storm'', the Franchise/XMen (Jean Grey, Cyclops, Beast and Wolverine) are trying to get into a [[Literature/HarryPotter Death Eater]] safehouse, [[spoiler:which has two of Voldemort's Horcruxes, the snake included]]. Harry, who is piloting the [[CoolPlane Blackbird]], suggests buzzing them with a low level pass at supersonic speed. And it works beautifully (the house is left with all windows broken, the roof burning and the front as if sandblasted). [[spoiler:Rogue then uses the second Blackbird to do the same on the Death Eaters that are attacking Hogwarts.]]

* In ''Fanfic/ThreeStrikes'', while missing a wing, Trigger makes it back to the 444th base she decides if she is going to crash, she might as well go out in style, so she buzzes the tower. She is able to land and gets an earful from the control tower. [=McKinsey=] just adds this as another reason to throw her into solitary confinement with the others despite having followed orders to the letter in the last mission.

Also known as a "buzz job," this is when a pilot, or someone who can fly somehow, makes a fast pass very low to the ground or close to a target with the intent to startle or frighten, or in some cases commence a strafing run. This is generally very dangerous; planes are meant to be in the sky, where pilots have room to take action if something should go wrong. Low altitude means there is less time to do something in the event of emergency, and in this case the ground is at times less than a second away. Also, the lower you are, the more likely there are to be obstacles sticking up from the ground at which point a BellyScrapingFlight (at best) or crash becomes more likely. So while this can be TruthInTelevision, Buzzing The Deck in RealLife (presuming you don't crash) will likely get you ReassignedToAntarctica.

* ''Film/TopGun'': [[MilitaryMaverick Maverick]] has a history of doing these over control towers (and one [[TheGeneralsDaughter admiral's daughter]]). In the course of the film he does it twice more, both times causing the controller to spill coffee on himself.[[note]]Incidentally, the ''real'' naval aviators who served as stunt pilots for the film were beyond thrilled because in real life, this is a stunt of which the United States Navy ''severely'' disapproves; pulling in real life will get you expelled faster than you can say 'takeoff', but in Hollywood, it was something they got to do ''repeatedly''.[[/note]]

* An AppealToForce against unfriendly forces without actually shooting at them.

* ''Film/TopGun'': [[MilitaryMaverick Maverick]] has a history of doing these over control towers, and one [[TheGeneralsDaughter admiral's daughter]]. In the course of the film he does it twice more, both times causing the controller to spill coffee on himself.
** He even does this multiple times [[Film/TopGunMaverick in the sequel]], [[spoiler:whether it be flying an experimental jet over the vehicle of the Admiral tasked with shutting down his team's test program, or spooking off his students by flying his [=F/A-18E Super Hornet=] right in between theirs during their dogfighting exercise.]] He does get to buzz the tower [[spoiler:at the end of the movie, with the F-14 Tomcat he and his co-pilot stole from the enemy.]]

* In ''WesternAnimation/TheLittleMermaid'' as part of the attempt to crash the wedding and buy time for Ariel, Scuttle gets a bunch of seagulls to buzz Vanessa.

* ''Series/TheBookOfBobaFett'': After acquiring a shiny new [[CoolSpaceship N-1 Starfighter]], [[Series/TheMandalorian Din Djarin]] takes it for a test flight and end up flying alongside a commercial starliner passing Tatooine. Unfortunately it turns out getting that close to other ships is illegal, and Din is quickly apprehended by a pair of New Republic X-Wings patrolling the area.

Also known as a "buzz job," this is when a pilot, or someone who can fly somehow, makes a fast pass very low to the ground or close to a target with the intent to startle or frighten. This is generally very dangerous; planes are meant to be in the sky, where pilots have room to take action if something should go wrong. Low altitude means there is less time to do something in the event of emergency, and in this case the ground is at times less than a second away. Also, the lower you are, the more likely there are to be obstacles sticking up from the ground at which point a BellyScrapingFlight (at best) or crash becomes more likely. So while this can be TruthInTelevision, Buzzing The Deck in RealLife (presuming you don't crash) will likely get you ReassignedToAntarctica.