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A Twin Otter float plane completing a water landing

In aviation, a water landing is, in the broadest sense, an aircraft landing on a body of water. Seaplanes, such as floatplanes and flying boats, land on water as a normal operation. Ditching is a controlled emergency landing on the water surface in an aircraft not designed for the purpose, a very rare occurrence.[1] Controlled flight into the surface and uncontrolled flight ending in a body of water (including a runway excursion into water) are generally not considered water landings or ditching.[2]

Aircraft water landings

By design

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The Apollo 15 capsule descends under two of three parachutes.

Seaplanes, flying boats, and amphibious aircraft are designed to take off and alight on water. Alighting can be supported by a hull-shaped fuselage and/or pontoons. The availability of a long effective runway was historically important on lifting size restrictions on aircraft, and their freedom from constructed strips remains useful for transportation to lakes and other remote areas. The ability to loiter on water is also important for marine rescue operations and fire fighting. One disadvantage of water alighting is that it is dangerous in the presence of waves. Furthermore, the necessary equipment compromises the craft's aerodynamic efficiency and speed.[citation needed]

Early crewed spacecraft launched by the United States were designed to alight on water by the splashdown method. The craft would parachute into the water, which acted as a cushion to bring the craft to a stop; the impacts were violent but survivable. Alighting over water rather than land made braking rockets unnecessary, but its disadvantages included difficult retrieval and the danger of drowning. The NASA Space Shuttle design was intended to land on a runway instead. Since 2020 the SpaceX Dragon has used water landings. The Boeing CST-100 is designed to do likewise.[citation needed]

In distress

US Airways Flight 1549 ditched on the Hudson River in 2009 with all passengers surviving.
Ditching button on the overhead panel of an Airbus A330

While ditching is extremely uncommon in commercial passenger travel, small aircraft tend to ditch slightly more often because they usually have only one engine and their systems have fewer redundancies. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, there are about a dozen ditchings per year.[3]

General aviation

General aviation includes all fields of aviation outside of military or scheduled (commercial) flights. This classification includes small aircraft, e.g., training aircraft, airships, gliders, helicopters, and corporate aircraft, including business jets and other for-hire operations. General aviation has the highest accident and incident rate in aviation, with 16 deaths per million flight hours, compared to 0.74 deaths per million flight hours for commercial flights (North America and Europe).[citation needed]

Commercial aircraft

The FAA does not require commercial pilots to train to ditch but airline cabin personnel must train on the evacuation process.[4] In addition, the FAA implemented rules under which circumstances (kind of operator, number of passengers, weight, route) an aircraft has to carry emergency equipment including floating devices such as life jackets and life rafts.

Some aircraft are designed with the possibility of a water landing in mind. Airbus aircraft, for example, feature a "ditching button" which, if pressed, closes valves and openings underneath the aircraft, including the outflow valve, the air inlet for the emergency RAT, the avionics inlet, the extract valve, and the flow control valve. It is meant to slow flooding in a water landing.[5]

Airplane water ditchings

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2022)
Date Aircraft Occupants Fatalities Details
13 January 1923 Aeromarine 75 9 4 13 January 1923: An Aeromarine Airways Aeromarine 75 had to ditch into the Atlantic Ocean when the flying boat suffered engine issues. 5 of the 9 people on board survived.[6]
21 October 1926 Handley Page W.10 12 0 21 October 1926: An Imperial Airways Handley Page W.10 (G-EBMS) ditched into the English Channel after suffering an engine failure. All 12 people on board survived.[7]
17 June 1929 Handley Page W.10 13 7 17 June 1929: An Imperial Airways Handley Page W.10 (G-EBMT) ditched into the English Channel after suffering an engine failure. 6 of the 13 people on board the plane survived.[8]
21 January 1939 Short S.23 Empire 13 3 21 January 1939: An Imperial Airways Short S.23 Empire (G-ADUU) ditched into the Atlantic Ocean after suffering a loss of power to its engines. 10 of the 13 people on board survived.[9]
10 February 1945 Douglas C-47 12 0 10 February 1945: A lost U.S. Air Force Douglas C-47 was attempting to make an emergency landing at a nearby airfield since it was running on low fuel. Unbeknownst to the crew, they were heading towards a Japanese airfield. A P-51, piloted by Louis Edward Curdes, conducting an air attack over the Japanese airfield spotted the C-47. He was unable to contact the crew of the C-47 as the radio on the C-47 stopped working, so he shot down both engines of the C-47 to prevent the occupants of the C-47 to be captured by the Japanese upon landing at the airfield. The C-47 was then forced to ditch into the sea. All 12 people on board survived and were eventually rescued.[10][11]
11 April 1952 Douglas DC-4 69 52 11 April 1952: Pan Am Flight 526A ditched 11.3 miles northwest of Puerto Rico due to engine failure after take off. Many survived the initial ditching but panicking passengers refused to leave the sinking wreck and drowned. 52 passengers were killed, 17 passengers and crew members were rescued by the USCG. After this accident it was recommended to implement pre-flight safety demonstrations for over-water flights.[12]
16 April 1952 de Havilland Australia DHA-3 Drover 3 0 16 April 1952: the de Havilland Australia DHA-3 Drover VH-DHA operated by the Australian Department of Civil Aviation[13] with 3 occupants was ditched in the Bismarck Sea between Wewak and Manus Island. The port propeller failed, a propeller blade penetrated the fuselage and the single pilot was rendered unconscious; the ditching was performed by a passenger; all 3 occupants survived.[14]
3 August 1953 Lockheed L-749A Constellation 42 4 3 August 1953: Air France Flight 152, a Lockheed L-749A Constellation ditched 6 miles from Fethiye Point, Turkey 1.5 miles offshore into the Mediterranean Sea on a flight between Rome, Italy and Beirut, Lebanon. The propeller had failed due to blade fracture. Due to violent vibrations, engine number three broke away and control of engine number four was lost. The crew of eight and all but four of the 34 passengers were rescued; the other 4 passengers died.[15]
19 June 1954 Convair CV-240 HB-IRW 9 3 19 June 1954: Swissair Convair CV-240 (HB-IRW) ditched into the English Channel because of fuel starvation, which was attributed to pilot error. All three crew and five passengers survived the ditching and could escape the plane. However, three of the passengers could not swim and eventually drowned, because there were no life jackets on board, which was not prescribed at the time.[16]
23 July 1954 Douglas C-54A-10-DC Skymaster 18 10 23 July 1954: Cathay Pacific VR-HEU ditched into the South China Sea after being shot by two Lavochkin La-11 fighters of the 85th Fighter Regiment, People's Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF). While ten passengers and crew were killed by bullets and the subsequent ditching, eight others survived and escaped from the sinking plane, including both pilots.[17]
26 March 1955 Boeing 377 Stratocruiser 23 4 26 March 1955: Pan Am Flight 845/26 ditched 35 miles from the Oregon coast after an engine tore loose. Despite the tail section breaking off during the impact the aircraft floated for twenty minutes before sinking. 4 died but 19 survivors were rescued after a further 90 minutes in the water.[18]
2 April 1956 Boeing 377 38 5 2 April 1956: Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2 (a Boeing 377) ditched into Puget Sound after severe buffeting and altitude loss that was later determined to have been caused by the failure of the crew to close the cowl flaps on the plane's engines. All aboard escaped the aircraft after a textbook landing, but four passengers and one flight attendant succumbed either to drowning or to hypothermia before being rescued[19][20]
16 October 1956 Boeing 377 31 0 16 October 1956: Pan Am Flight 6 (also a Boeing 377) ditched northeast of Hawaii, after losing two of its four engines. The aircraft circled around USCGC Pontchartrain until daybreak, when it ditched; all 31 on board survived.[21][22]
14 July 1960 DC-7C 57 1 14 July 1960: Northwest Airlines Flight 1-11 (A DC-7C) with 7 crew and 51 passengers made a successful ditching in shark-infested waters at 4:05am, 11 miles from Magdalo barrio, Polillo Island about 80 miles from Manila, Philippines. Capt. David Hall was forced to make an emergency water landing after a fire broke out in the no.2 engine when it did not feather followed by its propeller spinning off. In darkness and rough seas, the crew were able to evacuate all passengers and eventually get them aboard the life rafts as the aircraft sank nose first into the Pacific Ocean. There was only 1 loss of life caused by a heart attack. The 57 passengers and crew were rescued five hours later by Coast Guard Grumman amphibian and a US Navy PBM from Sangley Point Naval Base in Cavite, Philippines.[23][24]
22 October 1962 DC-7C 58 0 22 October 1962: Northwest Airlines Flight 293, a DC-7C with 7 crew and 95 passengers[25] made a successful water landing in Sitka Sound. The military charter flight was en route to Elmendorf Air Force Base from McChord Air Force Base and, prior to the ditching at just before 1 p.m. local time, the crew had been struggling with a propeller problem for about 45 minutes.[26] The plane stayed afloat for 24 minutes after coming to rest in the water, giving the occupants ample time to evacuate into life-rafts. Only 6 minor injuries were reported; all passengers and crew were quickly rescued by U.S. Coast Guard ships.[27] The accident report called the ditching "an outstanding feat", citing several key factors in this water landing's success: pilots' skill, ideal conditions (calm seas, favorable weather, daylight), time to prepare for the ditching and the military passengers' ease with following orders.[28] Pilots who flew over the scene also praised the Northwest crew, calling it the "finest ditching they had ever seen".[27]
23 September 1962 Lockheed 1049H-82 Super Constellation 76 28 23 September 1962: Flying Tiger Line Flight 923, a Lockheed 1049H-82 Super Constellation N6923C, passenger aircraft, on a military (MATS) charter flight, with a crew of 8 and 68 U.S. civilian and military (paratrooper) passengers ditched in the North Atlantic about 500 miles west of Shannon, Ireland after losing three engines on a flight from Gander, Newfoundland to Frankfurt, West Germany.[29][30] 45 of the passengers and 3 crew were rescued, with 23 passengers and 5 crew members being lost in the storm-swept seas. All occupants successfully evacuated the airplane. Those who were lost succumbed in the rough seas.[31]
21 August 1963 Tupolev Tu-124 52 0 21 August 1963: Aeroflot Flight 366 ditched into the Neva River in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) after running out of fuel. A nearby tugboat pulled the plane to shore where the passengers disembarked onto the tug; all 52 on board escaped without injuries.[32]
23 April 1966 Ilyushin Il-14 33 33 23 April 1966: Aeroflot Flight 2723 (an Ilyushin Il-14 registered as CCCP-61772) suffered a dual-engine failure several minutes after taking off from Bina International Airport. The pilots were unable to return back to Bina and ended up ditching into the Caspian Sea. The wreckage and occupants were not found until a few months later. All 33 people on board died.[33]
2 May 1970 McDonnell Douglas DC-9-33CF 63 23 2 May 1970: ALM Flight 980 (a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-33CF), ditched in mile-deep water after running out of fuel during multiple attempts to land at Princess Juliana International Airport on the island of Sint Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles under low-visibility weather. Insufficient warning to the cabin resulted in several passengers and crew still either standing or with unfastened seat belts as the aircraft struck the water. Of 63 occupants, 40 survivors were recovered by U.S. military helicopters.[34]
17 July 1972 Tupolev Tu-134 5 0 17 July 1972: A GosNIIAS Tupolev Tu-134 (CCCP-65607)[ru] was conducting a test flight when both of its engines shut down and the crew were unable to restart the engines. The plane was low on altitude and had to ditch on the Ikshinskoye reservoir. All 5 people on board survived with no injuries.[35]
11 September 1990 Boeing 727 16 16 (presumed) 11 September 1990: A Faucett Perú Boeing 727 (OB-1303) was running out of fuel and the pilots sent a out a distress message that was picked up by TWA Flight 851 and American Airlines Flight 35, stating that they were preparing to ditch into the Atlantic Ocean. Nothing else was ever heard from the pilots again and the wreckage and occupants were never found.[36][37] Officials from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) believed the plane had in fact ditched into the Atlantic Ocean.[38]
24 April 1994 Douglas DC-3 25 0 24 April 1994: A DC-3 (VH-EDC), operated by South Pacific Airmotive, suffered a failure of the left engine at approximately 200 ft (61 m) after taking off from Sydney Airport (Australia) . The power of the right engine was insufficient to climb or maintain height, so the pilot carried out a successful ditching. All 25 on board survived with only one minor physical injury.[39][40]
23 November 1996 Boeing 767-260ER 175 125 23 November 1996: Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 (a Boeing 767-260ER), ditched in the Indian Ocean near Comoros after being hijacked and running out of fuel, killing 125 of the 175 passengers and crew on board. Unable to operate flaps, it impacted at high speed, dragging its left wingtip before tumbling and breaking into three pieces. The panicking hijackers were fighting the pilots for the control of the plane at the time of the impact, which caused the plane to roll just before hitting the water, and the subsequent wingtip hitting the water and breakup are a result of this struggle in the cockpit. Some passengers were killed on impact or trapped in the cabin when they inflated their life vests before exiting. Most of the survivors were found hanging onto a section of the fuselage that remained floating.[41]
29 July 1998 Embraer EMB-110P1 Bandeirante 27 12 29 July 1998: A Selva Taxi Aéreo Embraer EMB-110P1 Bandeirante (PT-LGN)[de] had an oil pressure issue on the number 2 engine twenty minutes after taking off from Manaus-Eduardo Gomes International Airport and had to be shut down later on. Due to this, the crew decided to turn back to Manaus. The plane could not maintain flight with only one engine since the plane was severely overweight and thus unable to reach Manaus, so the plane had to ditch on the Manacapuru River. 12 out of the 27 people on board the plane were killed.[42]
13 January 2000 Short 360 41 22 13 January 2000: An Avisto Short 360 (HB-AAM) suffered a dual-engine failure after the melting of ice accumulated in both engines. The plane ditched into the Mediterranean Sea, 5km off Marsa Brega Airport. Out of the 41 people on board, 19 had survived, 21 were killed and 1 was missing and is presumed dead.[43]
31 May 2000 Piper PA-31 8 8 31 May 2000: a Piper PA-31 Chieftain operating Whyalla Airlines Flight 904 ditched in the Spencer Gulf in South Australia at night after both engines failed. The very dark conditions and lack of visual reference complicated the landing and the pilot and all 7 passengers were killed. As a result of the accident regulations in Australia now require that all aircraft carrying paying passengers over water carry life jackets and survival equipment.[44]
27 February 2001 Shorts 360-100 2 2 27 February 2001: Loganair Flight 670A, a Shorts 360-100, took off from Edinburgh Airport, United Kingdom. Shortly thereafter, the plane suffered a dual engine failure from an accumulation of large volumes of snow or slush in both engines and ditched in the Firth of Forth. Both pilots, who were the only people on board, were killed.[45]
16 January 2002 Boeing 737 60 1 16 January 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 making the decision to ditch the aircraft. Photographs taken shortly after evacuation show that the plane came to rest in knee-deep water.[46] Of the 60 occupants, one flight attendant was killed.[47]
11 November 2002 Fokker F27 Friendship 34 19 11 November 2002: Laoag International Airlines Flight 585 took off from Manila runway 31 at just after 6 o'clock for a flight to Laoag and Basco Airport (BSO). Shortly after takeoff engine trouble developed in the aircraft's left engine. The pilot declared an emergency and tried to land the plane but decided at the last minute to ditch into the sea. The aircraft broke up and sank in the water to a depth of about 60 feet. 19 of the 34 occupants were killed.[48]
6 August 2005 ATR 72 39 16 6 August 2005: Tuninter Flight 1153 (an ATR 72) ditched off the Sicilian coast after running out of fuel. Of 39 aboard, 23 survived with injuries. The plane's wreck was found in three pieces.[49]
15 January 2009 Airbus A320 155 0 15 January 2009: US Airways Flight 1549 (an Airbus A320) successfully ditched into the Hudson River between New York City and New Jersey, after reports of multiple bird strikes. This event is sometimes referred to as "miracle on the Hudson", as all of the 155 passengers and crew aboard escaped and were rescued by passenger ferries and day-cruise boats, in spite of freezing temperatures. The ditching occurred near the Circle Line Sightseeing Cruises and NY Waterway piers in midtown Manhattan.[50]
22 October 2009 Britten-Norman Islander 10 1 22 October 2009: a Divi Divi Air Britten-Norman Islander operating Divi Divi Air Flight 014 ditched off the coast of Bonaire after its starboard engine failed. The pilot reported that the aircraft was losing 200 feet per minute after choosing to fly to an airport. All 9 passengers survived but the captain was knocked unconscious and although some passengers attempted to free him, he drowned and was pulled down with the aircraft.[51]
18 November 2009 Westwind II 6 0 18 November 2009: A Pel-Air West conducting an air ambulance flight using a Westwind II (VH-NGA) ditched into the sea 3km south-west of Norfolk Island due to the flight crew being unable to land at Norfolk Island in poor weather conditions and not having enough fuel to divert to another airport. All 6 people on board survived.[52]
6 June 2011 Antonov An-26 3 0 6 June 2011: a Solenta Aviation Antonov An-26 freighter flying for DHL Aviation ditched in the Atlantic Ocean near Libreville, Gabon. All three crew and the one passenger were rescued with minor injuries.[53]
11 July 2011 Antonov An-24 37 7 11 July 2011: Angara Airlines Flight 9007 (an Antonov An-24 turboprop) ditched in shallow water in the Ob River near Strezhevoy, Russia, after an in-flight engine fire. Upon water contact, the tail and one engine broke off, but the rest of the fuselage remained in one piece. Of the 37 people on board, 7 passengers were killed and 19 injured.[54]
11 December 2013 Cessna 208B Grand Caravan 9 1 11 December 2013: A Makani Kai Air Cessna 208B Grand Caravan (N687MA) ditched shortly after takeoff from Kalaupapa Airport, Hawaii due to engine failure. The plane sustained substantial damage from the impact. Of the 9 people on board, one passenger was fatally injured, the pilot and two passengers were seriously injured, and five passengers received minor injuries.[55]
21 June 2019 Basler BT-67 2 0 21 June 2019: A North Star Air Basler BT-67 (C-FKGL) lost power to both engines after the pilot in the left seat, who was not flying the plane, accidentally moved the fuel condition levers while retracting the landing gear. The plane, flying in pitch-black conditions, had to ditch into Eabamet Lake, Ontario. Both pilots evacuated the plane without injuries.[56]
2 July 2021 Boeing 737 2 0 2 July 2021: On Transair Flight 810, one engine on the Boeing 737-200 cargo aircraft failed en route from Honolulu to the neighboring Hawaiian island of Maui. The crew attempted to turn back to Honolulu's Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, but the plane's second engine overheated, forcing the two pilots on board to ditch the airplane about 4 miles (6.4 km) off the southern coast of Oahu. Both pilots were rescued by the United States Coast Guard.[57]

Aircraft landing on water for other reasons

Passengers and crew being rescued by boats after Air Niugini Flight 73 landed in Chuuk Lagoon on 28 September 2018

Aircraft also sometimes end up in water by running off the ends of runways, landing in water short of the end of a runway, or even being forcibly flown into the water during suicidal/homicidal events. Twice at LaGuardia Airport, an aircraft have rolled into the East River (USAir Flight 5050 and USAir Flight 405).

This list is incomplete; you can help by adding missing items. (August 2022)

Military aircraft

A limited number of pre-World War II military aircraft, such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat and Douglas TBD Devastator, were equipped with flotation bags that kept them on the surface in the event of a ditching.[82][83]

The "water bird" emergency landing is a technique developed by the Canadian Forces to safely land the Sikorsky CH-124 Sea King helicopter if one engine fails while flying over water. The emergency landing technique allows the boat-hull equipped aircraft to land on the water in a controlled fashion.[84]

Space launch vehicle water landings

Beginning in 2013 and continuing into 2014 and 2015, a series of ocean water landing tests were undertaken by SpaceX as a prelude to bringing booster rockets back to the launch pad in an effort to reuse launch vehicle booster stages.[85] Seven test flights with controlled-descents have been conducted by April 2015.[86]

Prior to 2013, successful water landings of launch vehicles were not attempted, while periodic water landings of space capsules have been accomplished since 1961. The vast majority of space launch vehicles take off vertically and are destroyed on falling back to earth. Exceptions include suborbital vertical-landing vehicles (e.g., Masten Xoie or the Armadillo Aerospace' Lunar Lander Challenge vehicle), and the spaceplanes that use the vertical takeoff, horizontal landing (VTHL) approach (e.g., the Space Shuttle, or the USAF X-37) which have landing gear to enable runway landings.[87] Each vertical-takeoff spaceflight system to date has relied on expendable boosters to begin each ascent to orbital velocity. This is beginning to change.

Recent advances in private space transport, where new competition to governmental space initiatives has emerged, have included the explicit design of recoverable rocket technologies into orbital booster rockets. SpaceX has initiated and funded a multimillion-dollar program to pursue this objective, known as the reusable launch system development program.[88][89][90]

The orbital-flight version of the SpaceX design[91] was first successful at accomplishing a water landing (zero velocity and zero altitude) in April 2014 on a Falcon 9 rocket and was the first successful controlled ocean soft touchdown of a liquid-rocket-engine orbital booster.[92][93] Seven test flights with controlled-descent test over-water landings, including two with failed attempts to land on a floating landing platform, have been conducted by April 2015.[86]

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Further reading

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