Rule Question (forced casualties on sea)

[scheidelin]

A fighter and a carrier attacks a seazone from two different places, and the fighter uses all moves so it is only possible to land on the carrier.
No other carrier can reach the seazone in non-combat move.
The defender has one hit.

Q1: Do you always have to take fighters before carriers if the fighters have no place to land?
A lot of players define the attack as a kemikaze if you take the carrier first since the fighter will be lost if no place to land.

Q2: Is there anything in the rules that tells about this situation?

[Krieghund]

You don’t have to take the fighter first.  It’s perfectly legal to take the carrier and leave the fighter stranded.  In order for the fighter’s move to not be a suicide mission, the only requirement is that it have a possible place to land (assuming the defender never hits).  Once the battle actually starts, it’s up to the owning player which casualties are taken.

The rules dealing with suicide missions address movement only.  There is nothing in the rules that indicates that casualties must be taken in a certain order to preserve fighters’ landing spaces.