Two F/A-18 Hornets from Top Gun were dog fighting and made a head on pass, just a bit too close. One got home with part of the left wing and left vertical fin and rudder missing, while the other jet is missing everything forward of the cockpit pressure bulkhead and is a flying convertible because the canopy is shattered too.

Two heavily damaged aircraft where the pilots would have been justified in "punching out" of, but instead they chose to bring the jets in.

This endangered their lives but saved the taxpayers about 80 million dollars. What is especially intriguing is that in the 3rd picture, notice the radome, radar and all of the avionics equipment – everything is gone!

This created several problems for the pilot: aerodynamics, eventual loss of hydraulics due to loss of fluid, navigation, and probably the most amazing, as the pieces fell away, some debris had to be ingested by the engines - and he still was able to bring it home.

You know someone upstairs was looking out for these two guys...