Has a commercial passenger jet ever safely ditched in the ocean?

Question

In other words, have those inflatable life boats ever been deployed in the real world?

Answer 1

there have been only about a half-dozen attempts to ditch a commercial airplane since the beginning of the jet age in the late 1950's.

The most successful incident was a 1964 flight from Estonia to Moscow. After running out of fuel, the pilot of the Tupolev 124 put his plane down in the Neva River, and it was towed to shore. All 52 occupants survived. Usually, however, ditchings don't have such happy endings. On a 1970 flight from New York to St. Martin, in the midst of bad weather, the pilot missed three approaches to the airport and eventually ditched the plane off St. Croix. The plane stayed afloat for six minutes, allowing for the rescue of 40 of the 63 people on board. Investigators concluded there might have been more survivors if passengers had had time to prepare for landing.

i think jbill....is refering to Flight 961 that was hijacked on November 23, 1996 en route from Addis Ababa to Nairobi , by three Ethiopians seeking political asylum. The plane crash-landed in the Indian Ocean near Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 125 of the 175 passengers and crew on board.

The PILOTS  tried to ditch the aircraft in shallow waters 1500' off Le Galawa Beach Hotel near Mitsamiouli at the northern end of Grand Comoro island. They  tried to land parallel with the waves instead of against the waves in an effort to smooth the landing. ET-AIZ's left engine and wingtip struck the water first. The engine acted as a scoop, slowing that side of the aircraft quickly, causing the Boeing 767 to violently spin left and break apart.

This mishap might have been avoided if the pilots had followed proper ditching procedures.(IMHO)

Answer 2

Yes there has been. The most recent was when a Tuninter ATR-72 ditched in the Mediterranean off the coast of Sicily.  

Back on 06 August 2005 a Tuninter ATR-72 took off from on a scheduled passenger flight from Bari, Italy to Djerba, Tunisia. While flying off the coast of Palermo, the crew reported that the twin turboprop had developed engine problems, and requested an emergency approach and landing at Palermo. But the aircraft did not reach Palermo, and ditched into the sea. Investigators have revealed that, immediately before the fatal flight, the aircraft had performed a Tunis-Bari service and landed at Bari in Italy with just 305kg of fuel in total – a level which should have triggered a low-fuel alert to the crew. But the gauge incorrectly indicated that the ATR72’s tanks contained 2,300kg. This was because the ATR72’s fuel warning system depended on the information from the fuel-quantity indicator, an indicator which was reading incorrectly because it was designed to be fitted only in a smaller plane: the ATR42. The aircraft subsequently took on just 265kg of fuel at Bari, departing for Djerba with only 570kg in total, but which showed as 2,700kg to the crew. During the flight, no low fuel warning was triggered, due to the wrong indicator. The turboprop suffered fuel exhaustion and the ATR72 ditched off the Sicilian coast. The captain and co-pilot did their best to ditch the plane in an area close to boats to help ensure the greatest number of survivors. Among the 39 (passengers:34 crew:5) onboard, 14 were killed, including 2 crew.

My husband is a pilot and coincidentally is friends with the copilot from that ditching. If you'd like to hear the last 5 recorded minutes from the black box, you can do so here: http://jamiehassen.multiply.com /journal/item/205/ Tuninter_ATR-72_ Crash_on_ 06_Aug_2005

(due to the YA glitch of not displaying clickable links, you will have to copy and paste the above link into your browser, taking out the spaces. Or if you prefer, you can contact me and I will be more than happy to send you the link that way.)

Hope that helps. If I can be of any more help or assistance, please feel free to contact me.

Answer 3

Only a few times but do not worry, the chance to die in an air crash are minimum, and to ditch in the ocean, are less than minimum.

Answer 4

The line between ditch and crash is very small. The smaller and lighter the aircraft the more occurences you will see of successful ditches. You will rarely hear of airliners ditching safely in the ocean.

Answer 5

What do you mean safley?

I think there was a plane that was hijacked, and ran out of fuel.  They ditched in the water close to a beach, with plane mostly in tact,  don't know how many survived or not.