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[The Boys] Was Homelander really unable to save the airliner, or was he just too unimaginative or too unmotivated?

In season 1, episode 4, “The Female of the Species,” Homelander and Queen Maeve are dispatched to save a hijacked airliner but in the process, Homelander destroys the controls when he blasts the last hijacker who had just shot the pilot. 

Now, it’s pretty obvious that Homelander is not careful with how he uses his powers, as this isn’t the only time he causes serious collateral damage with his laser vision when he could have just walked up and punched his target instead and not risked the collateral. He just doesn’t give enough of a shit. This leads to my question:

Was Homelander actually not able to save the plane, or did he just not have the brains and motivation to figure out a way?

When pressed by Maeve, Homelander claims any attempt on his part to right the direction of the plane would either send it into a tumble or he’d just smash through it. He then refuses to even consider the possibility that he could ferry the passengers out one by one. 

Personally, I think Homelander was wrong (or lying) and that he had the right powers to save that plane.

Homelander is able to fly at supersonic speeds or he wouldn’t have been able to make it to the hijacked plane and back so quickly. Being able to accelerate the mass of an adult man to those speeds so quickly takes a lot of energy and moreover, carrying Maeve didn’t appear to slow him down. 

The argument that he has nothing to stand on to lift the plane and pushing down from the tail would put the plane in a tumble is garbage to me. The plane was already in motion and only required some redirection, which I think Homelander would be more than capable of providing if he just pushed the plane at the right point and accelerated gradually enough not to rip through the duraluminium skin. The “nothing to stand on” argument is especially nonsense. You. Can. Fly. Asshole. 

An aircraft by definition is providing lift as long as it is in motion at sufficient speed. All Homelander would have needed to do was get plane out of the dive and keep its flight path semi-level, which wouldn’t require him pushing the entire mass of the craft. Once the plane wasn’t in a tailspin, it could be brought down intact on the water, which wouldn’t be perfect and there might still be casualties, but it wouldn’t be the total loss it was.

Even if we assume somehow it wasn’t possible to bring the plane down intact, *Iron Man 3* taught us there’s more than one way to save people in distressed airplanes in flight. With even two or three trips and some creative thinking, Homelander could have saved more than two or three people and at least partially salvaged the situation. 

My conclusion is, Homelander could have saved those people but he was just too dumb and/or too unmotivated. Am I right or wrong?
gpt
So in the comics it all goes down a little different but still works as an example. Homelander tried to pull a superman and fly into the plane to stop it. Planes aren't built for pressure hitting them in a very small area in the underside. He snapped it in half killing everyone on board and the teams speedster in the process. Doesn't matter how strong or fast homelander is the plane doesn't have the structural integrity to withstand an impact like that. As for ferrying people we see how low the plane is after he and Maeve leave. It had minutes until it hit the ocean at best. He couldn't safely grab everyone and put them in the water then fly back up to grab the next person before it hit. If anyone survived they'd report how he didn't save everyone and it would make him look bad or worse at fault for destroying the controls. 

Now had Maeve killed the final hijacker and not destroyed the controls they might have been able to safely pilot the plane home or at least make an emergency water landing. In his zeal to kill the bad guys Homelander screwed up any hope of them saving the day. He was reckless and aggressive rather than trying to be precise. But none of his powers could safely land the plane or keep it from crashing without the controls. The only reason superman can pull planes out of the sky is because of his tactile kinesis that lets him "grab" the entire plane rather than just putting pressure where his hands are.