@NickFun,
For water landings alone here the history.
On 6 August 2005, Tuninter Flight 1153 (an ATR 72) ditched off the Sicilian coast after running out of fuel. Of 39 aboard, 20 survived with injuries including serious burns. The plane's wreck was found in three pieces. The survival rate was 51%.
On 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. Of the 60 occupants, one flight attendant was killed. The survival rate was 98%.[9] Photographs taken shortly after evacuation show that the plane came to rest in knee-deep water.[10]
On 23 November 1996, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 (a Boeing 767-260ER), ditched in the Indian Ocean near Comoros after running out of fuel, killing 125 of the 175 passengers and crew on board. The crash landing followed a hijacking of the aircraft and reports indicate that there was fighting between flight crew and the hijackers at the time of impact. Although most passengers survived the initial impact, many died after inflating their life vests while still inside the fuselage, preventing their escape from the sinking wreckage. The survival rate was 29%.
On 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 Saint Maarten in the Netherlands Antilles under low-visibility weather. Of 63 occupants, 40 survivors were recovered by U.S. military helicopters.[11] The survival rate was 63%.
On 21 August 1963, an Aeroflot jet powered Tupolev Tu-124 ditched into the Neva River in Leningrad after running out of fuel. The aircraft floated and was towed to shore by a tugboat which it had nearly hit as it came down on the water. The tug rushed to the floating aircraft and pulled it with its passengers near to the shore where the passengers disembarked onto the tug; all 52 on board escaped without injuries.[12] The survival rate was 100%.
On Oct. 4, 1960, 62 people died when Eastern Air Lines Flight 375 (Lockheed Electra four-engine turbo-prop) plunged wing-first into Boston Harbor after flying into a flock of starlings shortly after takeoff. Three engines lost power, the plane stalled and spun, crashed into water 200 yards offshore, and broke in half. Nine of the 10 survivors had serious injuries. It was the first commercial airline crash in Logan Airport's history, the deadliest air disaster in New England history at the time, and it remains the most deadly crash in US history involving a bird strike.[13] The survival rate was 14%.
In October 1956, Pan Am Flight 943 (a Boeing 377) ditched northeast of Hawaii, 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.[14][15] The survival rate was 100%.
In April 1956, Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 2 (also a Boeing 377) ditched into Puget Sound after the flight engineer forgot to close the cowl gills 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. The survival rate was 87%.
On 19 June 1954, a Swissair Convair CV-240 ditched into the English Channel. All three crew and three of the five passengers survived. The survival rate was 75%.
On April 16, 1952, the prototype de Havilland Australia DHA-3 Drover was ditched in the Bismarck Sea between Wewak and Manus Island. The port propeller failed, a propeller blade penetrated the fuselage and the pilot was rendered unconscious; the ditching was performed by a passenger. The survival rate was 100%.
[edit] Planes landing on water for other reasons
Aircraft also sometimes end up in water by running off the end of runways, landing in water short of the end of a runway, or even forcibly flown into the water during homicidal events. While such incidents are just as rare as water ditching and are not quite water landings, the passengers do find themselves swimming. Twice at LaGuardia Airport, aircraft have rolled into the East River.
On 3 February 2000, Trans Arabian Air Transport Flight 310 (a Boeing 707-351(C)) carrying cargo grossly overshot the landing strip at Mwanza Airport after a first attempt failed and eventually landed in the middle of Lake Victoria. The plane continued floating after the landing and all five crew survived, some with light injuries.[16]
On 23 November 1996, Ethiopian 961 (a Boeing 767-200ER) ditched in shallow water 500 meters from land after being hijacked and running out of fuel. 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. Of 175 on board, 52 survived. 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. The survival rate was 30%.
On 12 September 1993, while landing in poor weather conditions at Papeete Faaa airport, Tahiti, an Air France Boeing 747 registered F-GITA hydroplaned, overshot the runway and ended in a lagoon. All 272 passengers and crew evacuated successfully, even though the engines were still running and there was a risk of ingestion.[17] The survival rate was 100%.
In 1993 China Airlines Flight 605 (Boeing 747-409) ended up in water after it overran runway 13 at Kai Tak International Airport on landing during a typhoon with wind gusting to gale force. All of the 396 occupants donned life-vests, boarded the eight slide/rafts and no fatalities resulted. The airframe remained above water even after the aircraft was evacuated.[18]
In 1989, USAir 5050, a Boeing 737-401 with 63 people aboard overran the runway, landing in the East River and breaking into three pieces, sustained two deaths.[19]
In 1985 a DC-10, of American Airlines taking off from Muñoz Marín Airport in Puerto Rico to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport in Texas overran the runway and nosedived into a nearby lake. No one was injured.
World Airways Flight 30 slid of the runway and landed in the bay.
In 1982, Air Florida Flight 90 went down in the Potomac river after taking off from Washington National Airport. Only 6 out of 79 passengers and crew survived the initial crash, with one of the survivors eventually drowning after helping others to safety.
On 7 August 1980, a Tupolev 154B-1 operated by Tarom Romanian Airlines ditched in the water, 300m short of the runway at Nouadhibou Airport (NDB/GQPP), Mauritania. 1 passenger out of 168 passengers and crew died. The survival rate was 99%.
In 1978 National Airlines Flight 193 a Boeing 727 Trijet, unintentionally landed in the waters of Escambia Bay near Pensacola Florida after coming down short of the runway during a foggy approach. There were 3 fatalities among 52 passengers and 6 crewmembers, a 95% survival rate. [20][21]
On 22 November 1968 Japan Airlines Flight 2, a DC-8-62 landed short of the runway in San Francisco Bay on approach to San Francisco International Airport. There were no fatalities, and the aircraft itself was in good enough condition to be removed from the water, rebuilt, and flown again.
[edit] Crashing
There is a distinction between a controlled ditching and simply crashing (not even crash-landing) into the water; the latter is capable of killing everyone upon impact and disintegrating the plane. For example:
Armavia Flight 967 killed all 113 aboard in 2006;
Alaska Airlines Flight 261 killed all 88 aboard in 2000;
Kenya Airways Flight 431: 10 of 179 (6%) survived in a sea crash off Côte d'Ivoire in 2000;
EgyptAir Flight 990 killed all 217 aboard in 1999;
Swissair Flight 111 killed all 229 aboard in 1998;
SilkAir Flight 185 killed all 104 aboard in 1997; and
American Airlines Flight 320: 8 of 73 (11%) survived in a landing in New York City's East River in 1959.
On a smaller scale, John F. Kennedy, Jr. and his two passengers died in a water crash. As pilot and columnist Patrick Smith comments, these crashes tend to be more memorable than controlled water landings, perhaps fueling the public's suspicions of the survivability of aircraft that hit water.[22]
[edit] See also
