Emergency and Precautionary Landings

Ditching

During design, the ditching (landing on the surface of the sea) characteristics of the aeroplane will be explored fully and final attitudes, speeds and configurations suggested that would give the best chance of the airframe surviving the ditching. Statistically, ditching is generally successful although subsequent survival and rescue depends on many other factors. From data in the UK and the USA, 88% of ditchings result in few, if any, injuries to pilots or passengers. In the cases where death results from ditching, it is mainly caused by drowning subsequently. The success of ditching depends on the level of preparedness. The success of survival afterwards depends on rapid rescue and this will only result from good communications during the initial emergency and after the decision to ditch has been taken. Ditching is a deliberate landing on water, it is not an uncontrolled impact. Limitation to injuries of passengers will be achieved by adopting a braced posture whilst securely restrained in the seat harness, wearing a life jacket after having been fully briefed about what to expect during the landing and what to do afterwards. It is also imperative that loose articles are stowed, seats correctly positioned and access to emergency exits cleared. Supervision of this is the responsibility of the cabin staff and will form an essential part of cabin crew training.

The flight deck crew will action ditching checklists (type specific) and make any decisions necessary. It is a recommended (successfully proved) practice to land along the swell direction, on the crest of the swell. This will be where the water reaches its high point, the water will therefore be travelling downwards on initial contact, thereby reducing the impact force. However it must be borne in mind that swell is produced by tidal movement of the water, whereas waves are caused by the wind, and may be running across the swell. Therefore the best compromise between swell, waves and wind should be aimed for. In any event, the impact of the landing will be higher than a normal landing and the severity of the impact force will increase with sea state. Again it is recommended to land the aeroplane at the lowest possible speed (gear up) with an attitude such that the tail will touch first. The aeroplane should be flown onto the water, not dropped onto it through stalling. If the approach attitude and speed is satisfactory, it is inevitably there will be one or two minor skips before the main impact.

This will result in very high rotational (pitch) g force and may tend to ‘dig’ the nose into the

Emergency and Precautionary Landings 16

Landings Precautionary and Emergency 16

water, compounding the effect. Clearly this will be exaggerated as sea state increases, and will be accompanied by uncontrolled roll. The main effect will be, however, rapid deceleration and the pre-landing preparation in the cabin will be to counter the effect of this deceleration. The aeroplane will come to rest very quickly, and unless the airframe has been catastrophically damaged, it should float for sufficient time for the crew and passengers to exit the cabin and board the dinghies.

Precautionary Landing

If the nature of the emergency is such that diversion to an en route (or nearest) aerodrome is elected, then ATC should be informed of the decision to divert, the nature of the emergency and the assistance required. It is assumed that emergency communication procedures (Mayday/ Pan Pan) will be employed to initially alert ATC to the emergency. During the transit to the diversion aerodrome, there may be time for ATC to ‘scramble’ fixed wing SAR assets to escort the aeroplane in the emergency, or to raise the readiness level of assets on the ground. In any event, where it is feasible to do so, the instructions from ATC should be complied with regarding heights to fly, routeing and communications. It must always be foremost in consideration, that the situation could rapidly deteriorate forcing emergency landing or ditching. It will be the responsibility of ATC to alert the ground emergency services (fire/rescue, medical) and to pass necessary information to the commander of the aeroplane in emergency.

Passenger Briefing

In any emergency situation, fear amongst passengers is inevitable. This can lead to panic, disregard of authority and possible medical problems caused by anxiety, hypertension or hyperventilation. In the strong, the desire for self-preservation, may overcome self-discipline, and in the weak there may be a tendency to give up there and then. However, the cause of fear is ignorance, and the best way to overcome this is to brief the passengers fully (and also the cabin crew) about what has happened, what is being done and what is likely to happen subsequently. If a decision is made to carry out an emergency landing/ditching, the time between advising the passengers that this will happen until just before the event should be used in preparing the cabin and the passengers for the event. A continual stream of advice and instructions, information and practice, will occupy the minds of the passengers (and of course prepare them mentally and physically). The authority of the commander and the appreciation of the implied skill level of the crew will be reinforced by PA messages from the flight deck. The visual presence of the flight attendants in the cabin until they have to take up their landing positions will reinforce the opinion that the situation is fully under control.

Any procedure employed before an emergency landing/ditching must include a comprehensive brief to the passengers concerning the evacuation of the aeroplane after the event. The brief must stress the authority of the cabin crew with the requirement that the passengers do as they are told. In a ditching situation the correct fitting and use of life preservers (jackets) must be restated.

It should have already been covered during the initial passenger brief. The passenger brief card (one at each seat) will repeat and reinforce the information.

Evacuation

In the event of an emergency landing/ditching or following a precautionary landing, rapid evacuation of the aeroplane is essential to prevent loss of life. In any emergency the possibility of fire cannot be ruled out, and the only action passengers can take in the event of fire is to