A combination of coding shortcuts and unexpected bugs were the culprits behind GTA: San Andreas' infamous plane crashes.
For nearly two decades, the random plane crashes in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas have puzzled players. Whether you were innocently walking down the streets of Los Santos or attempting a delicate speedrun, the sudden appearance and subsequent explosive crash of a small aircraft was always an entertaining, if sometimes aggravating, spectacle — and now, we finally know what caused them.
This insight comes courtesy of former Rockstar dev Obbe Vermeij, who worked on San Andreas as well as other classic GTA titles. He explained that the crashing planes were the result of several tricky technical challenges the team faced. The core issue stemmed from how the planes were spawned and their pathfinding implemented.
"Before creating the plane, my code looks for obstacles in its path," Vermeij detailed on Twitter. "It scans a number of lines in the forward direction of the plane. These scans are slow so I used the absolute minimum. (Just the body and wingtips I believe) This is why thin obstacles are sometimes not detected."
https://twitter.com/ObbeVermeij/status/1775240936710082956
This scanning shortcut occasionally allowed the planes to be spawned on a collision course, unaware of the impending doom ahead of them. Vermeij noted there were additional problems too, with planes sometimes losing altitude after spawning because their initial speed wasn't enough to generate proper lift. What's more, if map elements hadn't fully loaded in yet, the planes could find themselves flying straight into unseen obstacles.
"These issues would occasionally allow planes to be created on a doomed flightpath," Vermeij added. In fact, he even considered removing the plane flyby sequences entirely, recognizing the frustration they could cause players. Thankfully for fans (and the internet), the hilarious crashes remained in the game.
Funnily enough, the surprises didn't end there. Renowned GTA modder @__silent_ later revealed there was an additional bug in the plane collision detection, which caused false positives and led to even more crashes than intended.
"These planes also crash more than they should due to a bug in the collision detection as planes are spawned. This can result in a false positive where the planes spawn, thinking the path in front is clear — when in reality, it's not," Silent explained, surprising even Vermeij himself.
So the next time you're cruising through San Andreas and suddenly find yourself dodging a plummeting aircraft, take solace in the fact that this is all part of the game's quirky, unpolished charm. These "doomed flightpaths" have become the stuff of GTA legend, and with the recent remasters, a new generation is sure to enjoy the chaos.
