Yeah, actually, this is a suggestion I'd like to put my vote behind too. Sometimes your landing-craft gets there, and you want to wait for daylight before launching the attack.
Also, often the interceptor will get to a landed craft first. So you want it to patrol, and immediately attack the UFO, should it attempt to take-off.
So really, when you reach a craft that's on the ground, rather than just having the options to "attack" and "return to base", a third option to "patrol" would be incredibly useful -- for both landing craft, and interceptors.