Why do ailines say "in the event of a water "landing" etc etc.." as if an ailiner?

Question

has ever actually landed on water?
I mean people these days are a little smarter about futility of water landings than they were in say, the 70s or 80s , so why pretend that plane can actually land on water?

Its been shown that planes generally disintegrate when trying a landing on water.
I'm not saying they should say "if we have to land on water we're all be dead" obviously!
bt wouldnt it be better to just not say anything about the plane acting like a "flotation device" and all that?

look at this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9nPepCuKdo

see my point?

Answer 1

Every now and then there is a survivable water landing. In 1970 a DC-9 ran out of fuel in the Caribbean and had to ditch. The plane floated for about 15 minutes or so after ditching and most of the people survived.

Of course it would have been better had this pilot had the good judgement not to run out of fuel.

Answer 2

Water landings would not be fun at all. The plane would come to a stop pretty dog-gone quick. But you must remember that pilots are trained for it. It doesnt mean that a water landing is going to result in mass casualties. There are ways to slow EVEN a jet down to a very slow speed. At the last second, a pilot virtually stop a jet's forward motion...allowing the jet to drop into the water. The water landing speech and all of the other things are used at the beginning of the flight to prepare people for that possible reality. Doing that speech BEFORE a problem is certainly going to be more orderly than trying to get people to listen to them in a crisis situation.

Trust the pilots. They make the big bucks for a reason, and these planes can do a lot more than you think.

Answer 3

The video you show is of a hijacked airliner crashing out of control into the ocean. At the time of that crash, the Captain was struggling with the hijacker and had an ax in his head. He was hardly 'landing' the aircraft. Had this same crash been into the ground, the results would have been far worse than it was into the water, where there was no fire and many passengers survived.

Yes, commercial aircraft really do float. Pilots are trained in great detail how to successfully 'land' in the water and passenger airplanes are engineered to safely land in the water, float and allow time for evacuation into all of those life rafts. Flight attendants are also trained in the proper evacuation procedures for a water landing vs. an evacuation on land.

Answer 4

In the video you showed, a lot of people survived the initial landing or 'ditching'. Most of the fatalities occured because passengers inflated their lifejackets INSIDE the airplane and drowned as it became increasingly difficult to evacuate the plane once it started to fill with water. Its always worth listening to the safety demonstrations prior to take off. There would possibly have been a lot more survivors if they had. So yes, it is possible to safely land a plane on water.

Answer 5

All modern airliners are designed to withstand ditching. It has not been shown that airplanes disintegrate in a controlled water landing. The airplane is required to be able to float long enough to get into the life boats (the escape slides).

The last intentional ditching was in the '50s. Everyone survived. It was a Boeing 377 Stratocruiser, in Puget Sound.

Answer 6

In the eighties a Gulfstream ditched in the water off Hawaii. All passengers and crew were rescued without any injuries. The jet floated for about two weeks and the navy had to finally go out and sink it because it was a hazard to navigation. Who told you a water landing was futile?

Answer 7

All onboard announcements, with the exception of those regarding beverage and movies, are designed by and made mandatory by the FAA (not the individual carrier). There have been a few incidences where people have survived water crash-landings --- so even if the announcement only has the chance of helping a minimum number of people, it is good commonsense to give it.

Answer 8

In the video you posted, about 50 people survived. Many swam to the shore, but a lot had to rely on floating devices. Apart from that, that was a terrible example on how to try to land on water, I guess in part because the terrorists didn't want to believe they were out of fuel...

Check this on out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V06LBgfuxgA
1- Plane overshoots runway
2- Plane floats on the river
3- Crew and passengers are rescued, but while that was happening, engine revs up. Life saving jackets would have been handy in case the boat got stuck on the plane's engine.

Answer 9

The waterlanding described may not be a planned incident. There are a lot of runways where an overshoot could land you in the water.

Answer 10

Because after ditching the people that do survive the impact know what to do.. how to act and how to evacuate the plane, how to inflate the vests and so on. Imagine that you survive a water landing and die because you didnt know how to inflate you life vest. You would be the madest dude in hell thats for sure....