TV’s Frink said:
Did the sand swallowing the Tie Fighter bother you because you missed it being referenced earlier, or because the desert doesn’t conform to the way you expect deserts to behave?

Doesn’t it occur to you that it just, oh, so awfully convenient that the desert would behave that way right at that spot where the TIE fighter crash landed, despite the fact that there’s crashed wreckage everywhere else on this planet?

And does it also not occur to you that just because a movie “referenced it earlier,” that doesn’t mean that that earlier reference or explanation actually, you know, makes sense?

It’s contrived. Nicely convenient, like pretty much every other event of the movie.

That’s the thing. If you’re in a position where you have to keep saying to yourself, “Well, that’s possible, but highly improbable,” and you’re saying it again and again and again, you’re watching a poorly written movie.