In an acute emergency can the pilot land an 747 on the beach or on the shore?

Question

Which one is safer seashore or beach sand. In case if the pilot is able to land at sea, can the plane float as it is pressurised. or water will get into the plane and drown. Any such emergencies people survived.

Answer 1

many planes have 'ditched' in the ocean.
I think it would be safer to land in the water that on an unpaved shore or beach.
yes, they survive, the planes do float and have escape hatches and rafts & flotation devices.
Hijackers will be thrown out before landing, preferably from 10,000 feet.

Answer 2

Planes are not designed to land on water, however this does not mean that they can't.

Ethiopian Airlines flight 961 some years ago did ditch. Hijackers took over the flight and demanded the captain fly to Australia. The problem was that they did not have enough fuel to make it and ditched in sight of a popular tourist beach on the Comoros Islands.

Here is a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_Airlines_Flight_961

Many people died, however, some, including the captain survived.

As you will see when you visit the link, the plane broke up into several sections after impact with the water, many pieces did float for quite some time after the ditching.




Also, on British Airways flight 009 in the 1980s, a 747-200 flew into a cloud of volcanic ash where all four engines stopped because they got clogged. The captain was planning a ditch when some of the engines restarted, so a ditch became unnecessary.

here is a link of the British Airways flight 009 article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Airways_Flight_009

My own opinion would be that (if it became absolutely necessary to land a plane off an airport and it became a choice between the beach and the water The captain would choose the water but very near to the beach where it was shallow. If you went too close to the beach you run the risk of hitting trees and other buildings but if you go too deep in the water you run the risk of sinking too quickly afterwards, or even "digging in" to the water in which case there would be an explosion because the forces of the impact would be too great.

hope this answers your question.

Answer 3

I don't think either approach will work. The sand on the beach is too soft for the plane to land on. Trying to land on water is just about impossible unless the aircraft was one of those Pan Am Clipper airplanes which was equipped to land on water. I think if something happened, the pilots would look for the nearest airport to land and do whatever they could to keep the aircraft afloat until it can reach an airport capable of handling an aircraft of that type.

Even though the plane is pressurized, the 747 will not be able to land on water. The plane most likely will break up on impact.

Answer 4

it is possible for the pilot to land on the shore, as the water nearby could slow it down. if it lands on the beach, the plane would be damage even more than landing on the shore. US Flight 93 on 9-11-2001 crashed onto soil and the plane blew up into pieces, and unlike Flight 93, another 747 landed on the water, and broke into three parts instead of blowing up.

Answer 5

I reckon if the pilot is good enough he can land "or control crash" anywhere that is needed. I reckon a beach would not be a good landing gear landing as the sand would just tear the wheels off. Best bet would be to skip through the water like a seaplane and pray you make it to shore or shallow water. The plane will not float, to heavy. Theirs been cases of shallow water crashes where people have survived.

Answer 6

There has never been a succesful crash landing in the water. Hitting the water at that speed is the same as hitting a concrete floor except that it cannot keep the plane on balance and therefore every attempt had smashing results. Between the ocean and the shore, i don't think there is much difference really.

Answer 7

To be honest with you, a 747 lands on a runway at about 150 MPh give or take some wind. So imagine hitting the water at that speed. It will tear apart. Now if you land on the sand, i imagine the gear would tear away, but it would be a hard landing. You want to land level and fast before you want to land nose first, mid stall.

Answer 8

I don't think so, really. Runways at major airports that handle those types of aircraft are usually about 6 feet thick. That's one reason why those big birds don't land at the smaller private type airports; runways aren't long enough and they are also too thin - maybe 2 to 3 ft thick.
Trying to land on a beach would probably cause the landing gear to just dig in and whole thing would crack up.

Answer 9

Why the enormous what-to-do over a 4 year previous incident? The pilots for sure desperate that they had adequate battery ability and there became no might desire to declare an emergency of their opinion. in accordance with their awareness of the airplane, they have been maximum probable appropriate in that assumption. the undeniable fact that they did no longer save on with all strategies for this adventure ought to all right have been that they have been purely somewhat busy with their issue. i'm sorry in case you have subjects with Qantas. yet i could be greater in contact of their modern-day operational strategies than their 4 year previous strategies (that have been corrected). You, on the different hand, have been obsessing in this incident for the previous 3 years.

Answer 10

I take my chances on shore if you survive the water crash you screw any ways a lot of planes have successfully land on anything but water.