It's in Artoo's character to rush out and try to rescue, the humans just as it's in Threepio's character to warn him not to do so and get dragged into trouble despite himself so I was happy with that part of the droids role in the sequence and the jets make sense for an astrodroid to have (a lot of his work would be on the outside of ships doing repairs, the only time where it would make sense for him to use them in the OT would have been escaping off Jabba's barge and I've suggested that as a change for ROTJ.)

The bit that doesn't work is what happens to Threepio.

Not only is the idea utterly stupid and the joke not even remotely funny but the effects are so bad it looks like a fan made spoof scene (Robot Chicken only not very funny).

George never figured out what to do with Threepio in the prequels, which is a shame because the idea of having them as the Greek Chorus of the saga (having this huge Galactic saga underpinned by a couple of robotic slaves) is a great one.

It might have been fun to have still have him fall off the little bridge thing but into the bowels of the factory line and shut down the external defenses around the Seperatist conference allowing for Mace and the Other Jedi to land undetected (Obi-Wan and Padme land but they are detected straight away).