Gone, but not forgotten.
The missing man formation
is a form of Due to the Dead performed by fighter jet pilots. It consists of a flight of aircraft performing a formation pass over a fellow pilot's funeral, either with one position conspicuously empty or with one pilot sharply pulling away (straight up or up and sideways) just over the site while the others maintain course.
Although primarily used in the military air force context, its variants can be used in other situations, as well. Compare Empty Chair Memorial, 21-Gun Salute, and Riderless Horse.
Since this is often a Death Trope, beware of spoilers.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Dragon Ball Z: Inverted in a filler episode. Four of the five members of the Ginyu Force are dead, and the dead four try to recreate their iconic poses but lament that there's a missing space where their still-living leader should be. It's also not so much a memorial as it is an attempt to keep doing what they've always done.
- Simoun: The Sybillae have the special ceremonial Ri Maajon of the Fields to honor their dead, which requires five Simouns—exactly one short of a full choir. Chor Tempest performs it after Mamiina's death, effectively mutinying during a state of emergency to do so.
Comic Strips
- One Pearls Before Swine strip features a Missing Fly Formation in honor of a fly who got smooshed by a stripper. Yes, that is what happened.
Fan Works
- Changeling Space Program & The Maretian: Missing Mare in this case, and an unusual non-posthumous instance of this trope. A message to Spitfire from the Wonderbolts on Sol 107 of The Maretian says that the flight group intends to fly the formation at every show until the castaways have been rescued.
Films — Animated
- Done in Big Hero 6 as the team stand on a skyscraper, surveying the aftermath of their showdown with the Big Bad after Baymax's Heroic Sacrifice.
Films — Live-Action
- The ending of Armageddon (1998) shows a squadron of jets, actually the F-16 Fighting Falcons of the USAF Thunderbirds, performing this maneuver for Harry, who sacrificed himself to save the world.
- A two-man version at the end of Furious 7 paid tribute to the departed actor Paul Walker, where Dom and Brian drive side-by-side until Walker's car pulls away and drives into the sunset.
- Iron Eagle I: Doug Masters asks the fighters that rescued him if they could fly the formation for "Chappy" Sinclair, who was shot down during the mission or so everyone thought. The USAF major in command of the flight responds that they were waiting for Doug to take the lead position.
- Done ridiculously insensitively in The McConnell Story, in which McConnell's widow is advised of her fighter and test pilot husband's death by the missing man formation.
- The Right Stuff, as befitting a movie about test pilots.
- At the end of Star Trek Into Darkness during the re-christening ceremony for the Enterprise, which doubles as a memorial for all who died, including Christopher Pike.
- The end of Thirteen Days has one over Major Anderson's casket.
- A formation occurs in Top Gun: Maverick during Iceman's funeral; four jets fly over, with one peeling away straight up as the other 3 continue forward.
Literature
- The Honor Harrington book Echoes of Honor opens with Honor's funeral. The Missing man formation is used, as it is for all pilots in the Royal Manticoran Navy. The whole scene is a Tear Jerker, even if you just read the previous book and know that Honor's not really dead.
- Performed in Barrett Tillman's Warriors as part of a memorial service for an instructor pilot killed in a crash.
- Happens at the end of Joe Ledger novel The Dragon Factory during Grace's funeral.
Live-Action TV
- In the Babylon 5 episode "Ceremonies of Light and Dark", the station's fighters perform one during a memorial for those who died fighting off Earth loyalists.
- Mentioned in passing in "Legacies" when Commander Sinclair compares the extravagant funeral honoring a Minbari war hero to Earth's own customs, including this one.
- Harm flies in one in JAG both to honor a fallen aviator and to convince the aviator's Guy in Back that he isn't being haunted by a jinx. Things go invariably wrong.
Music
- In early 2017, Linkin Park introduced a logo consisting of a stylized "LP" (which they had used since 2007's Minutes to Midnight) encased inside a hexagon to represent the 6 members of the band. After the death of frontman Chester Bennington in July 2017, the upper left side of the hexagon was removed to represent the loss.
- Following the plane crash that killed Lynyrd Skynyrd front man Ronnie Van Zant (along with two other band members and a tour manager), the surviving members of the band put on a tribute in which they played an instrumental version of their hit song "Free Bird", with the spotlight focused on the unused microphone.
- Ever since becoming a Trio due to the absence of Richey Edwards, Manic Street Preachers had a few publicity photos (as well as the cover art for This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours) with one of the members of the band notably posing a bit further away from the rest of the band like if the empty space between them was meant for Richey.
Video Games
- In Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War, an allied flight performs a missing man flyby over the November City after Chopper is shot down and he fails to bail out due to a damaged/faulty ejection system.
Western Animation
- In Beast Wars, Optimus, Cheetor, and Silverbolt fly overhead in the missing man formation during Dinobot's funeral. Earlier in the episode, three ravens do the same, foreshadowing Dinobot's death.
- Invincible (2021). During the funeral for the Guardians of the Globe, two jet fighters fly overhead in formation with superhero Omni-Man, who then flies vertically up into the sky before returning to give the funeral speech. The irony is that Omni-Man was the one who killed the Guardians.
Real Life
- While it is unknown who first came up with the missing man formation and when, its origin can be traced to the RAF, most likely during the World War I. Some say that they first flew it for Manfred von Richthofen, the original Red Baron.
- Several athletic teams have used a variant on this formation after a team member's death.
- In August 1979, after New York Yankees catcher/team captain Thurman Munson died in a plane crash. In the game following Munson's funeral, the team took the field at Yankee Stadium but left his spot behind home plate vacant for a minute.
- When USC football placekicker Mario Danelo died shortly after the Trojans completed their 2006 season, the formation for Trojans first point after touchdown in the 2007 season consisted of the other regular ten players used for a kicking attempt, but no kicker. USC maintained that formation until a delay of game penalty was assessed.
- In 2007, Washington Redskins safety Sean Taylor was killed by burglars. In the first Redskins game after Taylor's death, the Redskins defense took the field for its first play with ten men instead of the usual 11, with Taylor's position left empty. Additionally, after Taylor was posthumously named to the Pro Bowl, the NFC teamnote also took the field with only 10 players on their first defensive play.
- Similarly, when University of Nebraska punter Sam Foltz died in a car crash over the summer of 2016, Nebraska sent its punt team out for the first time in the 2016 season without a punter.
- In the first game after the 2021 death of former All-Pro wide receiver Demaryius Thomas, the Denver Broncos lined up for their first snap from scrimmage with ten men and no wide receiver. As in previous cases, they didn't actually run a play in this formation, but rather simply stood in the formation until the play clock ran out; their opponents, the Detroit Lions, had been informed of the plan ahead of time and, as they had agreed to do, declined the penalty.
- In the 2024 home opener for the Columbus Blue Jackets of the NHL the team lined up for the opening face-off minus one forward in memory of winger Johnny Gaudreau, who had been killed along with his brother Matthew after being struck by a car while riding their bicycles. Columbus center Sean Monahan tapped the puck to Sam Bennett of the Florida Panthers (who had played with Gaudreau in Calgary), who then passed it to the empty left wing position. The teams then stood silent for 13 seconds (Gaudreau's number with Columbus) before officials reset the face-off with a new puck.
- In Motorsports, the pole sitter of a race would end up driving back to the second row to leave the pole spot empty for an active driver who recently passed away. Formula One drivers would do this in 1994, leaving first two spots of the starting grid at Monaco empty for both Ayrton Senna and Roland Ratzenberger after the two drivers died in separate crashes at Imola. NASCAR would do this in both 2001 at Rockingham after Dale Earnhardt died in a wreck at Daytona, and in 2026 at Charlotte when Kyle Busch died of Pneumonia a few days prior. IndyCar would do one in 2011 at Las Vegas during their five-lap tribute to Dan Wheldon, moments after he died in a catch fence crash during the championship race that same day.
- A short video of fighters from Homeworld 2 flying in this formation was posted online as a memorial to a popular founding member of Relic Entertainment's official forum.
- During World War II, Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands was a Wing Commander in the RAF. At his funeral in 2004, the missing man formation was flown with three modern fighter jets and one WWII Spitfire.
- At the funeral of Hans-Ulrich Rudel on 22 December 1982, 2 F-4 Phantoms of the Bundeswehr crossed their paths in the air, another F-4 made a dive (immitating Rudel's own divebombing during WWII) and another 2 F-4s with a F-104 Starfighter flew a formation above.note Just as expectable, Bundeswehr officials denied knowing anything except usual scheduled training flights.
- Following the death of George H.W. Bush, the 41st President and Commander-in-Chief of the United States Armed Forces, out of respect for President Bush's service in World War II as a Navy pilot, the United States Navy performed a Missing Man Formation for President Bush as he was laid to rest at his Presidential Library in Texas, with 21 F/A-18 Hornets flying over the library, with the final four performing the Missing Man after the other 17 flew past. All following the end of the Air Force band performing "The Star-Spangled Banner" as the honor guard of all five branches of the armed forces stood at attention and said their final salute and goodbye to their President and Commander-in-Chief as 43rd President George W. Bush, First Lady Laura Bush, and their family also said goodbye to their patriarch.
- During Super Bowl XXX between the Dallas Cowboys and Pittsburgh Steelers, the performance of the Star-Spangled Banner was followed by the usual flyover going into a "missing man" formation. Making this even more significant was that the date of the game (January 28, 1996) marked the 10-year anniversary of the Challenger tragedy; and the lead pilot, Richard W. Scobee, was the son of Challenger's commander Dick Scobee.