Water Landings

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By: ASU01 - 18th February 2006 at 21:47

I was woundering if any of you aviation experts could help me. I have always woundered about the survivablity of water landings they have life vests and rafts but how useful are they and if by chance my airplane goes down over the Atlantic is there any chance of survival.

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By: zoot horn rollo - 18th February 2006 at 22:17 - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00

Without wishing to be flippant about it, the view that has always been expressed to me has been 'if can't it fly and that's what it was designed to do, then what makes you think it will float?"

Yes, some airliners have floated, normally after having overrun the runway. Others haven't and the best documented event was probably the hijacked Ethiopian B767 which tried to ditch in the sea after running out of fuel and broke up quite close to the beach. In all honesty, widebody jets are not designed for landing in the sea and I would suggest that, apart from the overrun event mentioned above, lifejackets and liferafts are more there for comfort than any real hope.

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By: andrewm - 18th February 2006 at 22:37 - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00

Ethiopian B767 which tried to ditch in the sea after running out of fuel and broke up quite close to the beach. In all honesty, widebody jets are not designed for landing in the sea and I would suggest that, apart from the overrun event mentioned above, lifejackets and liferafts are more there for comfort than any real hope.

Did the Ethiopian not break up because the hijackers banked it violently at the last second and this made one wing hit the water which then made the whole plane cartwheel? May have made safe landing on water if not for the last minute bank made by hijackers...