I'm going with controlled crash. A super Star Destroyer is bigger than the meteor that killed the dinosaurs. But with enough anti-grav working for it, it could control the crash enough to cripple the ship without destroying the planet.

What I find funny, thinking about it now, is how much cheaper ramming an SD into a planet to cause a mass extinction is than building A Death Star... I suppose Dearh Stars don't give much time for escapes though. That makes for scarier symbols.

Forget building SSDs for that purpose. It would be much, much cheaper, easier, and more effective to simply capture a few asteroids/comets in the system, line 'em up towards a planet, and let 'em rip. With all the tractor beams those ships have, this is trivially easy.

I'm going with controlled crash. A super Star Destroyer is bigger than the meteor that killed the dinosaurs. But with enough anti-grav working for it, it could control the crash enough to cripple the ship without destroying the planet.

What I find funny, thinking about it now, is how much cheaper ramming an SD into a planet to cause a mass extinction is than building A Death Star... I suppose Dearh Stars don't give much time for escapes though. That makes for scarier symbols.

Forget building SSDs for that purpose. It would be much, much cheaper, easier, and more effective to simply capture a few asteroids/comets in the system, line 'em up towards a planet, and let 'em rip. With all the tractor beams those ships have, this is trivially easy.

Reminded me of this:

http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Rocks_Are_Not_Free!

Whatever happened, we can be pretty sure that it started with some helmsman turning to the rest of the bridge and saying "Hey! Watch THIS!"

Preceded by "Hold my blue milk..."

Also.. if the EU/Legends is used, there were several.. 4 I think.. SSDs constructed.. I can place 2 and their destruction in either ep 6 or a book.. the other 2 I dont recall where they were or what happened to them.

There were 4 according to early sources but as the EU grew Executor-class SSDs reproduced like rabbits. Checking Wookiepedia I show:

1. Executor; crashed into DS2 and destroyed at Endor

2. Lusankya; buried in Coruscant, captured by New Republic, becomes Wedge Antilles' flagship

3. Unknown name; equipped with cloaking devices, destroyed at Battle of Fondor

4. Terror; destroyed at Imdaar Alpha during destruction of TIE Phantom program

5. Vengeance, destroyed at the Battle of Nocto

6. Guardian; defender of Coruscant, surrendered to New Republic in 16 ABY

7. Annihilator; destroyed in combat with forces of the Zann Consortium

8. Iron Fist (Brawn); flagship of Warlord Zsinj, destroyed at Dathomir by Han Solo

9. Reaper; Admiral Palleon's flagship, destroyed at the Battle of Celanon in 13 ABY

10. Night Hammer, Admiral Daala's flagship, destroyed at Yavin 4 in 12 ABY

11. Intimidator, flagship of the Black Fleet, after combat career found drifting abandoned in the Unknown Regions circa 21 ABY

So this one at the Battle of Jakku is yet another...

A controlled crash wouldn't be upside down.

Why not? There is no upside down in space. Rolling it over may have been impossible once it was forced into atmo.

There's no upside down in space, sure.

But what sane helmsman wouldn't at least TRY to keep it level? With so much surface area it would NOT be difficult.

A controlled crash wouldn't be upside down.

Why not? There is no upside down in space. Rolling it over may have been impossible once it was forced into atmo.

There's no upside down in space, sure.

But what sane helmsman wouldn't at least TRY to keep it level? With so much surface area it would NOT be difficult.

To the planet?

To the other ships?

To what?

None of it matters. And then suddenly you're flying towards the surface, ceiling side down with limited navigation and only your repulsors to guide you down.

Really? You're just being difficult when you ask what you'd keep it level to. Come on.

Obviously the planet. I mean, level on the way down.

"Oh boy our engines are failing what do we do?"
"Well we should PROBABLY level out the ship and make sure we don't land this thing upside down."
"Right? Let's do that."

And then they didn't because it was nowhere near a controlled landing.

Really? You're just being difficult when you ask what you'd keep it level to. Come on.Obviously the planet. I mean, level on the way down.

"Oh boy our engines are failing what do we do?"

"Well we should PROBABLY level out the ship and make sure we don't land this thing upside down."

"Right? Let's do that."

And then they didn't because it was nowhere near a controlled landing.

There is only one way that ship hit the ground without leaving the planet in an atomic winter for decades. Only one way the impact didn't vaporise the ship.

It didn't come down at terminal velocity(or even close to it.)

Thus the impact had to be controlled. Significantly. Evdn if it is upside down.

The narrative for how that happened has a lot of options. But there is only one way that crash happened. Under some level of control.

Oh my god guys. Stop.

Oh my god guys. Stop.

Chill. We're enjoying ourselves.

Oh my god guys. Stop.

Chill. We're enjoying ourselves.

Lol if that's what you do for fun. I need to just be sure to unsubscribe to threads quicker.

Oh my god guys. Stop.

Chill. We're enjoying ourselves.

Lol if that's what you do for fun. I need to just be sure to unsubscribe to threads quicker.

Must be a writer thing.

A controlled crash wouldn't be upside down.

Whatever happened, we can be pretty sure that it started with some helmsman turning to the rest of the bridge and saying "Hey! Watch THIS!"

Quick hold my beer!

Really? You're just being difficult when you ask what you'd keep it level to. Come on.Obviously the planet. I mean, level on the way down.

"Oh boy our engines are failing what do we do?"

"Well we should PROBABLY level out the ship and make sure we don't land this thing upside down."

"Right? Let's do that."

And then they didn't because it was nowhere near a controlled landing.

Rolling a ship that wide over in atmosphere would destroy it. The air resistance alone would be enormous. And there would be zero reason to voluntarily enter the atmosphere.

There is only one way that ship hit the ground without leaving the planet in an atomic winter for decades. Only one way the impact didn't vaporise the ship.

It didn't come down at terminal velocity(or even close to it.)

Thus the impact had to be controlled. Significantly. Evdn if it is upside down.

The narrative for how that happened has a lot of options. But there is only one way that crash happened. Under some level of control.

Unless star wars ships are a hell of a lot more durable than previously thought.

Really? You're just being difficult when you ask what you'd keep it level to. Come on.Obviously the planet. I mean, level on the way down.

"Oh boy our engines are failing what do we do?"

"Well we should PROBABLY level out the ship and make sure we don't land this thing upside down."

"Right? Let's do that."

And then they didn't because it was nowhere near a controlled landing.

Rolling a ship that wide over in atmosphere would destroy it. The air resistance alone would be enormous. And there would be zero reason to voluntarily enter the atmosphere.

There is only one way that ship hit the ground without leaving the planet in an atomic winter for decades. Only one way the impact didn't vaporise the ship.

It didn't come down at terminal velocity(or even close to it.)

Thus the impact had to be controlled. Significantly. Evdn if it is upside down.

The narrative for how that happened has a lot of options. But there is only one way that crash happened. Under some level of control.

Unless star wars ships are a hell of a lot more durable than previously thought.

Unless star wars ships are a hell of a lot more durable than previously thought.

Well we know an SSD can be destroyed by being hit by a ship about the size of a Ford Fiesta, soooooo...

Unless star wars ships are a hell of a lot more durable than previously thought.

Well we know an SSD can be destroyed by being hit by a ship about the size of a Ford Fiesta,

...that explodes like a Pinto.

It is apparent that the downed SD was not piloted by one Anakin Skywalker. That guy was so PRO that he could land with half a ship. By comparison the SD helmsman had WHOLE ship to land with.

Imperial Navy should be ashamed to produce such low level quality personel.

3. Unknown name; equipped with cloaking devices, destroyed at Battle of Fondor

That would be the Razor's Kiss/ Second Death. The Razor's Kiss was destroyed, and the busted bits of shrapnel were cobbled together by Warlord Zsinj into the Second Death and detonated while under a cloak, to convince the New Republic they'd destroyed his own SSD, the Iron Fist.

Am I the only that thinks a reasonable explanation is that the Star Destroyer(s) may have been destroyed within the planet's atmosphere?

I assumed that was the case since there's an X-wing wreck there too, and you certainly wouldn't expect that to be intact.

Yeah, an Eclipse would've probably destroyed the darn planet when it crashed...

And yet I would morn for the Eclipse Class more than a simple planet, the Galaxy has tens of thousands of those.

The Eclipse Class has been long ago recton'd not to be longer than the Executor Class (SSD) each being 9 3/4 miles to 11 miles (15.75 Kilometers to 17.95 kilometers), but you are of course correct, the Eclipse Class is much more massive vessel and carries much heavier armament even when compared to the Executor Class.

From what I remember reading the retcon was in regards to the prototype Eclipse class...

Not that I care to much, I'll stick to original cannon

See my thought is that the debris on Jakku is waht is left after the DSII was destroyed. Jakku is another moon in the Endor System and that the SSD on the ground is the Executor. This would also explain the X-Wing in th first shot.

Just my two cents.

The Executor crashed headlong into the DSII then exploded and then the DSII exploded. How in the ^$#& did the Executor fly across a system, crash land into another planet, and still remain relatively intact? Star Wars stretches physics quite a bit, but that's ridiculous. There apparently was a massive battle at Jakku. This has been confirmed quite a few times. New Republic Forces engaged what was left of an Imperial Remnant.

To be fair we only see a fire-ball, we don't really see the entire ship come apart.

So it is possible that this is the aft of the Executor.

Also we don't see enough to know that is a full ship in the sand.

ike the stone that hit our planet and exterminated the dinosaurs.

That "stone" you refer to is estimated at six miles (about 10km) WIDE, that's just the width.

By the time the nose had hit the ground the back end was still out of the atmosphere!!

Really? You're just being difficult when you ask what you'd keep it level to. Come on.Obviously the planet. I mean, level on the way down.

"Oh boy our engines are failing what do we do?"

"Well we should PROBABLY level out the ship and make sure we don't land this thing upside down."

"Right? Let's do that."

And then they didn't because it was nowhere near a controlled landing.

Rolling a ship that wide over in atmosphere would destroy it. The air resistance alone would be enormous. And there would be zero reason to voluntarily enter the atmosphere.

There is only one way that ship hit the ground without leaving the planet in an atomic winter for decades. Only one way the impact didn't vaporise the ship.

It didn't come down at terminal velocity(or even close to it.)

Thus the impact had to be controlled. Significantly. Evdn if it is upside down.

The narrative for how that happened has a lot of options. But there is only one way that crash happened. Under some level of control.

An object with the mass required to put a planet into an atomic winter for decades would need to be moving much much faster than (earths) terminal velocity.

There are so many things to take into account, like the mass of the falling object, the gravity of the planet, speed, material etc

End of the day, the rule of cool wins here.

I think a semi controlled crash landing would look great, the ship has lost main power as is caught in the gravity well of the planet and all the command crew can do is use maneuvering thrusters to keep the ship on a glide approach angle.

It would look epic

Really? You're just being difficult when you ask what you'd keep it level to. Come on.Obviously the planet. I mean, level on the way down.

"Oh boy our engines are failing what do we do?"

"Well we should PROBABLY level out the ship and make sure we don't land this thing upside down."

"Right? Let's do that."

And then they didn't because it was nowhere near a controlled landing.

Rolling a ship that wide over in atmosphere would destroy it. The air resistance alone would be enormous. And there would be zero reason to voluntarily enter the atmosphere.

There is only one way that ship hit the ground without leaving the planet in an atomic winter for decades. Only one way the impact didn't vaporise the ship.

It didn't come down at terminal velocity(or even close to it.)

Thus the impact had to be controlled. Significantly. Evdn if it is upside down.

The narrative for how that happened has a lot of options. But there is only one way that crash happened. Under some level of control.

Who said anything about rolling in atmosphere? A lot of space battles take place in sub-orbit, in Star Wars. The Gravitational pull is fairly present as a result. The moment your stuff stops working, you're gonna' level out with the planet, bottom-down and control the landing.

It's really obvious that this thing did not have a controlled landing.

...Because it's upside down, and there's absolutely nothing controlled about upside down.

I think there could be plenty of different scenarios. Maybe it was badly damaged and making an emergency landing, but just before it could manage it a new wave of Rebel ships hit it and it rolled out of cintrol.