Has there ever been a successful crash landing by a commercial airliner on the sea?

Question

The saftey briefing on board commercial jets always includes a segment on landing on water - but has an aircraft actually ever managed this? Or do they all break up on impact and everyone dies?!

Answer 1

Never.

Makes you wonder why they have life vests, huh?

Answer 2

You can land in water.  And some aircraft have.

Now, If there is a major crash, landing on water is just the same as landing on earth.  So it won't matter much.

But some people have survived crashes on land, and will at sea to.

Answer 3

Yes, a Tunisian passenger plane made an emergency landing in the sea off the Italian island of Sicily. 23 was rescued, 13 died in the crash and 3 persons are missing.

The aircraft was an ATR-72, a French-made twin-engine turbo-prop aircraft which can carry up to 72 passengers.

Answer 4

ALM Flight 980 John F. Kennedy International Airport to Princess Juliana International Airport in St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles, on May 2, 1970.

After several unsuccessful landing attempts, the aircraft's fuel was exhausted and it made a forced water landing (ditching) in the Caribbean Sea 48 km (30 mi) off St. Croix, with 23 fatalities and 40 survivors. The accident is one of a very small number of intentional ditchings of jet airliners

Answer 5

I recently saw a piece on a jetliner that had been hijacked and ran out of fuel. It crashlanded in the ocean. Alot of the people actually survived the crash and fortunately the plane went in the ocean near an island so they could get to land. The survivors interviewed said that they were still buckled into their seats, floating in the water. Apparently the entire seat is designed to float. There is video footage of this, but I'm unsure where to direct you to find it. Sorry.

Answer 6

Many many many

Answer 7

Yes.

Landing on water is like landing on a runway without landing gear.

However big aircrafts like 767's cannot land, as their engines are below the wing and will get ripped the moment they touch down.

Also the fuselage is not meant to land on water.

Check the links below:

Landing Gear:

http://www.aviationearth.com/Theory/land...

Boeing 767:

http://www.aviationearth.com/aircraftdat...

Boeing:

http://www.aviationearth.com/Boeing.html

Answer 8

Generally aircraft that have a smooth underside (I.e no engines hanging below the wing) would have a better chance of a 'successful' crash land onto water. This is because without underslung engines the aircraft has a better chance of not digging in (and therefore breaking up!).

I can't remember a civillian airliner managing this but a military NImrod did manage to crash land into the Moray Firth (NE Scotland) without breaking up & the crew managed to survive.

Answer 9

Successful crash is a oxymoron.

Answer 10

Yes. There are news films of a jet liner landing near a beach.

many people survived.

I don't know why some people are saying "No" or "never". The film is very famous and was shot by someone on holiday on the beach.

YouTube has all the vidoes, as well as some not so sucessful landings on water - just looked.

Answer 11

There have been many water landings, the results are generally favorable for survival, though obviously this is not always the case.

Probably the most famous was an Ethiopian airliner carrying 175 people, it was hijacked over Africa, eventually it ran out of fuel and crashed just off the coast of an island resort, there is some rather famous video footage of its final moments as it impacted the water.

I think around 60 people survived, the aircraft broke up, fortunately it was in shallow water, unfortunately many drowned, still strapped in to their seats.

Answer 12

Just because it breaks up, doesn't mean everybody dies. As someone mentioned, an Ethiopian flight was highjacked and ran out of fuel and ditched in the ocean. A lot of people survived the impact but died because they inflated their lifejackets before they got out of the fuselage, which they were told not to do, so the bouyancy pinned them to the roof and they drowned.

Answer 13

Yes there has been. The most recent was when Tuninter ATR-72 ditched in the Mediterranean off the coast of Sicily on 06 Aug 2005. 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.

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/...

Answer 14

Some cases yes. But usually the tip of the nose of the wings clip the water and it sends them into a cartwheel. Some people survive others are knocked unconcious and die.

Answer 15

I think that there is a flaw in your basic assumption;

You are assuming that after a long flight something goes awry that results in the aircraft having to do a water landing .

I think the flaw is that you are overlooking the fact that many airports not only have approaches that are over water but also  runways that start or end in bodies of water

So for instance if you run out of runway at LGA it is entirely possible that you will wind up in Flushing Bay in which case you will need that life jacket and the knowledge of how to use it properly

Answer 16

(a) In 2002, Garuda Indonesia Flight 421 (a Boeing 737) successfully ditched into the Bengawan Solo River near Yogyakarta, Java Island after experiencing a twin engine flameout during heavy precipitation and hail. The pilots tried to restart the engines several times before taking the decision to ditch the aircraft. Of the 60 occupants, one, a flight attendant, was killed. But her death was not attributed to the aircraft crash. Her body was found floating in the river some far away from the aircraft and it seemed that immediately after crash landing she jumped into the river and died as she could not swim. I don't remember which issue but I read this article in Reader's Digest also.

(b) In 1963, an Aeroflot Tupolev 124 ditched into the River Neva after running out of fuel. The aircraft floated and was towed to shore; all 52 on board escaped without injuries.

(c) In 1956, Pan Am Flight 943 (a Boeing 377) ditched into the Pacific after losing two of its four engines. The aircraft was able to circle around USCGC Pontchartrain until daybreak, when it ditched; all 31 on board survived.

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