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Water landing

Aircraft landing intentionally on a body of water

Aircraft landing intentionally on a body of water

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, and it is a very rare occurrence. 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, but are considered accidents. Most times, ditching results in aircraft structural failure.

Aircraft water landings

By design

Seaplanes, flying boats, and amphibious aircraft are designed to take off and land on water. Water-landing 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.

Spacecraft

Main article: Splashdown

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. 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. The SpaceX Dragon uses water landings, and has carried crew since 2020.

In distress

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. Reasons for ditching vary, but the most common are engine failure, flat spin, and pilot error.

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).

Commercial aircraft

In the United States, the FAA does not require commercial pilots to train to ditch but airline cabin personnel must train on the evacuation process. 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.

Airplane water ditchings

DateAircraftOccupantsFatalitiesDetails
13 January 1923Aeromarine 7594An 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.
21 October 1926Handley Page W.10120An Imperial Airways Handley Page W.10 (G-EBMS) ditched into the English Channel after suffering an engine failure. All 12 people on board survived.
17 June 1929Handley Page W.10137An 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.
21 January 1939Short S.23 Empire133An 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.
10 February 1945Douglas C-47120A 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.
11 April 1952Douglas DC-46952Pan 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.
16 April 1952de Havilland Australia DHA-3 Drover30url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160821132102/http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=71738date=21 August 2016 }} Retrieved 2 August 2010 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; a passenger performed the ditching; all 3 occupants survived.
3 August 1953Lockheed L-749A Constellation424Air 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.
8 May 1954Antonov An-250After mistakenly enabling reverse thrust, the Antonov An-2 Registered CCCP-N140 sunk after attempting to land on a chunk of floating ice. No occupants were injured and they were rescued by another aircraft.
19 June 1954Convair CV-240 HB-IRW93Swissair 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.
23 July 1954Douglas C-54A-10-DC Skymaster1810Cathay 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.
26 March 1955Boeing 377 Stratocruiser234Pan 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.
2 April 1956Boeing 377385Northwest 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.
16 October 1956Boeing 377310Pan Am Flight 6 (also a Boeing 377) ditched northeast of Hawaii, after losing two of its four engines. The aircraft circled around until daybreak, when it ditched; all 31 on board survived.
14 July 1960DC-7C571Northwest Orient 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 September 1962Lockheed 1049H-82 Super Constellation7628Flying Tiger Line Flight 923, a Lockheed 1049H-82 Super Constellation registered as 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. 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 evacuated the airplane. Those who were lost succumbed in the rough seas.
22 October 1962DC-7C580Northwest Airlines Flight 293, a DC-7C with 7 crew and 95 passengers 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. 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. 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. Pilots who flew over the scene also praised the Northwest crew, calling it the "finest ditching they had ever seen".
21 August 1963Tupolev Tu-124520Aeroflot 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.
23 April 1966Ilyushin Il-143333Aeroflot 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 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.
16 September 1966C-47A271, operated by Spantax on a Douglas DC-3/C-47A-75-DL registered as EC-ACX, was forced to ditch in the Atlantic Ocean due to an engine problem 2 minutes after takeoff. This domestic flight was en route from Tenerife to La Palma in the Canary Islands, Spain. One passenger died during the evacuation.
2 May 1970McDonnell Douglas DC-9-33CF6323ALM 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.
17 July 1972Tupolev Tu-13450A GosNIIAS Tupolev Tu-134 (CCCP-65607) 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.
11 September 1990Boeing 7271616 (presumed)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. Officials from the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) believed the plane had in fact ditched into the Atlantic Ocean.
24 April 1994Douglas DC-3250A DC-3 (VH-EDC), operated by South Pacific Airmotive, suffered a failure of the left engine at approximately 200 ft 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.
25 March 1995Lockheed P-3 Orion110A US Navy Lockheed P-3 Orion had to ditch into the Arabian Sea 200 miles east of Oman when the Lockheed P-3 Orion suffered a catastrophic loss of the number 4 engine propeller. The catastrophic loss of the propeller resulted in propeller fragments passing through the aircraft fuselage and severing fuel lines and control cables for the remaining 3 engines resulting in a no power water landing. All onboard survived.
23 November 1996Boeing 767-260ER175125
29 July 1998Embraer EMB-110P1 Bandeirante271229 July 1998: A Selva Taxi Aéreo Embraer EMB-110P1 Bandeirante (PT-LGN) 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.
13 January 2000Short 360412213 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, 5 km 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.
31 May 2000Piper PA-3188
27 February 2001Shorts 360-1002227 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.
16 January 2002Boeing 737601
21 May 2002Douglas DC-330May 21, 2002: A Douglas DC-3 registered as X-JBR operated by Aero JBR crashed after performing a regular maintenance flight. The crew had conducted multiple touch and go landing when both engines lost power. The crew successfully ditched it in Lake Casa Blanca and were rescued by a boat. The aircraft sunk in 6 feet (1.8 meters) of water
11 November 2002Fokker F27 Friendship3419
6 August 2005ATR 723916
4 January 2008Let L-410 Turbolet14144 January 2008: At altitude 7,500 the Let L-410 Turbolet airliner operated by Transaven crashed near the Los Roques Archipelago. The aircraft had suffered a double engine flameout and ditched into the ocean. All 14 occupants on board were killed after it sunk to the seafloor.
15 January 2009Airbus A3201550
22 October 2009Britten-Norman Islander101
18 November 2009Westwind II6018 November 2009: A Pel-Air West conducting an air ambulance flight using a Westwind II (VH-NGA) ditched into the sea 3 km 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.
6 June 2011Antonov An-2630
11 July 2011Antonov An-24377
11 December 2013Cessna 208B Grand Caravan9111 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.
26 February 2016CASA/IPTN CN-2358026 February 2016: While performing routine training exercises, a Casa CN-235M operated by the Royal Malaysian Air Force had its left engine catch aflame. The aircraft subsequently crashed on the beaches of Taman Malawati Utama. 7 of the 8 occupants escaped unharmed with the only injured person being the copilot, who escaped with a broken arm.
22 November 2017Grumman C-2 Greyhound11322 November 2017: A Grumman C-2 Greyhound belonging to supercarrier Ronald Reagan (CVN-76) Landed just short of the carrier deck after losing power in both engines, three occupants were killed.
21 June 2019Basler BT-672021 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.
18 October 2019Douglas DC-32018 October 2019: A Douglas DC-3 registered N437GB crashed 2.87 miles (4.61 km) short of runway 13 at Lynden Pindling International Airport in Nassau, Bahamas the DC-3 was being operated by Atlantic Air Cargo and was on a flight to Lynden Pindling from Miami International Airport, the pilot reported that the aircraft lost power in the left engine 25-30 nautical miles from MYNN. He also stated that while under single engine operation after the failure the aircraft's performance was not optimal, which is what coerced him to make the ditching. The ATC of MYNN was notified by both crew members of N437GB that they would make the ditching. Air Traffic Control at MYNN notified the Royal Bahamas Defense Forces. Upon landing rescue efforts were implemented and both the co-pilot and pilot were rescued with no injuries. The aircraft was written off and a limited-scope investigation into the crash was initiated.
2 July 2021Boeing 737202 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 off the southern coast of Oahu. Both pilots were rescued by the United States Coast Guard.
15 December 2022Pilatus PC-6 Porter2115 December 2022: PK-SNF (Nicknamed "Franz"), the last Pilatus PC-6 Porter produced by Pilatus Aircraft crashed in the water shortly after taking off from Heraklion International Airport after reporting electrical problems. The plane was on a delivery flight with 1 pilot and one passenger from Buochs Airport to Hurghada International Airport with stops in Maribor Edvard Rusjan Airport and Podgorica Airport along the way in that chronological order. After taking off from Heraklion International Airport PK-SNF reported unspecified electrical problems and while on a turn back to Heraklion, lost large amounts of airspeed, stalled and ditched in the water, killing the 68 year-old Indonesian passenger and slightly injuring the 28 year-old pilot. The aircraft floated upside down for an extended period of time before being recovered by emergency services, it was on delivery to its new owner Smart Cakrawala Aviation based in Indonesia.
27 January 2026130Cessna 208B Grand Caravan27 january 2026: PK-SNS, a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, operated by Smart Air on a commercial regional flight in Indonesia, suffered a loss of engine power shortly after take off from Douw Aturure Airport, headed to Utarom Airport. The pilots couldn't return to the airport and ditched off the coast of Nabire. All 13 people on board the aircraft survived.

Aircraft landing on water for other reasons

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 has rolled into the East River (USAir Flight 5050 and USAir Flight 405).

  • 5 September 1954: KLM Flight 633, a Lockheed L-1049C-55-81 Super Constellation, suffered a re-extension of the landing gear shortly after taking off from Shannon Airport, which the flight crew was not aware. This caused the plane to descend and ditch into the River Shannon. 28 of the 56 people on board survived.
  • 13 January 1969: Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 933, a McDonnell Douglas DC-8-62, ditched in Santa Monica Bay while on approach to runway 07R of Los Angeles International Airport, California. Out of the 45 people on board the plane, 4 drowned, 11 are missing and presumed dead, 17 were injured, and 13 sustained no injuries.
  • 28 February 1984: Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 901, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-30, overran the runway shortly after landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport and ended up with its nose in shallow water. All 177 occupants on board survived with 12 of them sustaining injuries.
  • 31 August 1988: CAAC Flight 301, a Hawker Siddeley Trident, overran the runway at Kai Tak international Airport and ended up in Kowloon Bay, breaking into two pieces. 7 of the 89 occupants on board perished and 15 others sustained injuries.
  • 26 September 1988: Aerolineas Argentinas Flight 648, a Boeing 737, landed hard and overran the runway at Ushuaia Airport and ended up in shallow water. All 62 people aboard survived.
  • 3 May 2019: Miami Air International Flight 293, a Boeing 737-800, hydroplaned and experienced a runway excursion upon landing at Naval Air Station Jacksonville. The airplane came to rest in the shallow waters of St. Johns River, sustaining substantial damage. All 143 passengers and crew on board the plane survived, although twenty-one people on board suffered minor injuries.

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.

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.

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. Seven test flights with controlled-descents have been conducted by April 2015.

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. 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.

The orbital-flight version of the SpaceX design 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. 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.

In October 2024 the upper stage of SpaceX's Starship spacecraft performed a controlled, high accuracy water landing in the Indian Ocean near a pre-positioned buoy that captured footage of the splashdown.

Techniques for water landings

  • Glassy water landings: Glassy water conditions, characterized by little to no wind, pose unique challenges for pilots. In such scenarios, visual cues for altitude are minimized, making it difficult to judge the aircraft's height above the water. Pilots are advised to maintain a controlled descent rate of no more than 150 feet per minute and to establish a pitch attitude before reaching the water. It's crucial to avoid turning during the final approach to prevent wingtip contact with the water.
  • Pre-landing assessment: Before landing, pilots should conduct a thorough assessment of the landing area. This includes checking for obstacles, wave height, and wind direction. A common practice is to fly over the intended landing area first to gauge conditions. Adjustments to flaps and descent rates should be made accordingly to ensure a smooth touchdown.

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