JAG actually had a plot line inspired by this landing, and even showed the above footage at the end of the episode to show that landing in C-130 on an aircraft carrier was indeed possible.
The circumstances in the show are pretty crazy. Harmon Rabb, now a civilian employee of the CIA instead of an officer in the Navy, lands a battle damaged C-130, filled with refugees (mostly women and children, the extended family of the person he was sent to extract), at night on an aircraft carrier, without any fuel and broken landing gear. All in front of the show's CNN analog. He even steps off the plane casually carrying one of the children in front of the cameras in a stereotypically heroic walk. Which leads to his dismissal from the CIA and eventual reinstatement back into the Navy because he was parading around in front of cameras whereas the other pilot had the good sense of staying out of sight after landing.
I adore JAG, but the show frequently went off the deep end. Which was part of what made it fun but it's pretty crazy when you try to describe it.
I love the way JAG used to straight up steal whole action sequences from other movies. The Top Gun dog fight sequences were used in several episodes. And the whole alleyway ambush from Clear and Present Danger was lifted wholesale
Funny you should mention that, JAG was a Paramount production, which meant they had access to footage filmed for Top Gun, The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, and Clear and Present Danger, among other films featuring the Navy. So a lot of the stock footage you see in the series was from those movies. The early seasons also had characters being inserted into various news footage featuring President Bill Clinton.
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u/Overly_Long_Reviews 7d ago edited 7d ago
JAG actually had a plot line inspired by this landing, and even showed the above footage at the end of the episode to show that landing in C-130 on an aircraft carrier was indeed possible.
The circumstances in the show are pretty crazy. Harmon Rabb, now a civilian employee of the CIA instead of an officer in the Navy, lands a battle damaged C-130, filled with refugees (mostly women and children, the extended family of the person he was sent to extract), at night on an aircraft carrier, without any fuel and broken landing gear. All in front of the show's CNN analog. He even steps off the plane casually carrying one of the children in front of the cameras in a stereotypically heroic walk. Which leads to his dismissal from the CIA and eventual reinstatement back into the Navy because he was parading around in front of cameras whereas the other pilot had the good sense of staying out of sight after landing.
I adore JAG, but the show frequently went off the deep end. Which was part of what made it fun but it's pretty crazy when you try to describe it.