Is it possible to land a passenger plane on the water: real cases of a miraculous landing. Airliner crash landing in New York will go down in aviation history

Modern civil aviation is one of the most safe species transport. Multiple duplication of various systems makes it possible to reduce the danger of a catastrophe to a minimum.

And yet it is impossible to avoid emergencies. One of the most dangerous of them is a forced landing on the water.

Aviation experts are convinced that if there is at least one chance to avoid this, it must be used. Because even landing a liner "on its belly" at the airport leaves much to be desired. more chances on the survival of passengers and crew than splashdown.

World aviation knows only a little more than a dozen controlled forced landings of passenger airliners on the water. Most of them did not do without casualties on board.

On August 21, 1963, the crew of the Soviet Tu-124 airliner, flying from Tallinn to Moscow, committed forced landing in Leningrad, right on the surface of the Neva. liner commander Viktor Mostovoy managed to do the incredible - having avoided a collision with numerous bridges, he splashed down the plane so that all the passengers and crew members survived.

Nearly 46 years later, an American pilot appeared in the place of Mostovoy Chesley Sullenberger.

"Pilot of the highest class"

The year Viktor Mostovoy performed the "miracle on the Neva," the 12-year-old son of a Texas dentist, Chesley Sullenberger, became a member of the Mensah high-IQ community.

Passion for aviation came later, at the age of 16. Chesley entered a private flying club, where he realized that the profession of a pilot was what he wanted to do all his life.

In 1969, the US Air Force Academy was replenished with an 18-year-old cadet Sullenberger, who collected all possible awards and promotions, graduating with the qualification "top flyer" ("top-class pilot").

After seven years of military service, he switched to civil aviation. A specialist with military experience and a high IQ was brought in to investigate plane crashes.

Much later, the pilot founded the company Safety Reliability Methods, which provides advice on safety in aviation.

But the main thing for Chesley Sullenberger was flying. For three decades he piloted civil ships US Airways, safely delivering passengers to their destination.

Chesley Sullenberger. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

especially dangerous geese

He was to perform flight AWE 1549 on the route New York - Charlotte - Seattle. Departure from New York was scheduled for 15:20 local time.

The flight was carried out on an Airbus A320. The aircraft did not cause concern - it was released in 1999, regularly underwent scheduled maintenance and did not cause any complaints.

Sullenberger's co-pilot that day was a 49-year-old Geoffrey Skiles. Behind him was 23 years of work in US Airways, but the pilot had to fly the A320 for the second time in his life.

A total of 150 passengers boarded the aircraft. In addition to the two pilots, the crew included three flight attendants.

At 15:24 the liner took off from New York airport. And almost immediately an emergency happened.

As a rule, all airports have bird scaring systems. This is necessary to prevent the collision of birds with aircraft, which poses a serious danger to flights.

But on this day, not one crazy bird, but a whole flock of geese appeared on the way of the Airbus A320. The meeting took place just 90 seconds after takeoff. The plane could not evade them, and after a moment there were thuds that were heard by the passengers in the cabin.

For modern liners the failure of one engine is not fatal - the plane can fly to its destination on one.

But on this day, the geese hit both engines, which failed. Passengers heard a loud bang and smelled smoke, some of them could see fire through the windows.

Hudson River. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

"We're on the water"

Sullenberger reported to the ground: there was an emergency on board, both engines were disabled, an emergency landing was needed.

The situation was almost hopeless: engine thrust was rapidly decreasing, there was no headroom, since the A320 managed to climb only 975 meters, and the metropolis stretched below.

Ground controllers noted that the commander of the liner remained absolutely calm. He initially announced that he would return to the New York airport, then said that he would land at the nearest Teterboro airport. After that, the connection was interrupted.

The pilots realized that they would not get to the airport - they had only a few seconds to stay in the air. Turning the liner to the south, they took the A320 over the Hudson River. The George Washington Bridge rose in front of them, but just as the Tu-124 pilots once managed to avoid a collision with the Leningrad bridges, so the Americans managed to bypass one of the New York landmarks.

There was no choice - Chesley Sullenberger decided to land the plane on the water. Confused and not really understanding what was happening, the passengers heard the voice of the commander over the speakerphone: “Get ready to strike! We're on the water."

Aircraft wreckage. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

The commander is the last to leave.

Those who were on the nearby streets experienced no less shock - the descending plane made us remember the September 11 attacks.

The Airbus A320 touched down on the surface of the water, sending up a cloud of spray that hid it for a few seconds. From the side it seemed that the plane collapsed or went to the bottom, but then everyone saw that the liner remained on the surface.

The crew managed to prevent a catastrophe, but this was not yet salvation - the plane could not stay on the water for a long time. There were life jackets on board, but it was impossible to jump into the water - it was January outside, and swimming in the Hudson threatened people with a repetition of the fate of the Titanic passengers, many of whom did not drown, but died of hypothermia in icy water.

The A320 gradually sank, and its passengers got out onto the plane of the wings and the roof. At this time, the police, coast guard, lifeguards and just caring people, who had watercraft, rushed to the plane to provide assistance to those in distress.

The evacuation was carried out quickly. Chesley Sullenberger, as befits the ship's commander, was the last to leave him, bypassing the saloon and making sure that no one was left on board.

As a result of the incident, 83 people were injured, most of whom received slight frostbite, and only five were seriously injured during landing.

Such an outcome of this situation with good reason allowed us to call it the "miracle on the Hudson."

Chesley Sullenberger walks around the cabin of that same plane. Photo: www.globallookpress.com

Hanks as a hero, hero as Hanks

The plane was towed to a pier near the World financial center where they were taken out of the water.

The A320 did not take to the skies again. It was acquired by the Carolinas Aviation Museum in Charlotte (the liner was supposed to fly to this city during its fateful flight). Now the plane is one of the most popular exhibits.

And Chesley Sullenberger turned into a real "hero of the nation", a participant in numerous talk shows. True, there were those who believed that the plane could have been landed in another way, and the pilot put people at unjustified risk.

However, the investigation concluded that the pilot's actions were the only correct ones.

Seven years later, the film Miracle on the Hudson was released on world screens, in which the main role was played by Tom Hanks.

65-year-old Chesley Sullenberger responded to this quite unexpectedly - in the television show Jimmy Kimmel the pilot played ... Tom Hanks. Rather, he made parodies of all the famous roles of the actor from Forrest Gump before the astronaut James Lovell from Apollo 13.

Tom Hanks, who also participated in the show, after watching the parodies, remarked: “Chesley Sullenberger, I respected you so much. Now we both have dark spots in our careers."

November 22, 1968 passenger aircraft DC-8 Japan Airlines (Japan Airlines), registration number JA8032, call sign Shiga, PIC - Kohei Aso, flying from Tokyo to San Francisco, made an emergency landing in low cloud conditions, splashing down half a kilometer from American coast. None of the 96 passengers and 11 crew members were injured during the accident.

July 17, 1972 Tu-134 aircraft, board USSR-65607 of the Ministry of Aviation Industry, performed a test flight. FAC - Vyacheslav Kuzmenko. During the flight in the holding area, the fuel pumps of both engines turned off. The engines have stopped. The relatively low altitude and the expended battery power did not allow them to be launched in flight. The plane made a splashdown on the water area of ​​the Ikshinskoye reservoir, near the village of Bolshaya Chernaya. As a result of splashdown, the plane did not collapse and none of the 5 crew members was seriously injured.

June 2, 1976, in the afternoon, in simple weather conditions, when landing at the Zhuliany airport, the Yak-40 aircraft made an emergency landing outside the airfield, side number USSR-87541 Lithuanian Administration civil aviation, performing the flight Kaunas - Kyiv. KVS - Shtilyus V.S. At an altitude of 700 meters, having received an instruction from the dispatcher to take a height of 400 meters, the commander of the ship gave the command to the flight mechanic Sinkevicius to set the engines to idle and began to descend. At this time there was a simultaneous stop of three engines. An attempt by the crew to start the engines in flight failed. The crew decided to land on the water of the Dnieper. But the plane did not reach the river. The commander of the aircraft made an emergency landing with retracted landing gear in the swampy shallow water in the area of ​​Osokorki, which is now a residential area of ​​Kyiv, and then was a wasteland. The aircraft received minor damage. The crew and passengers were not injured.

August 8, 1988 An-12 military transport aircraft (535th OSAP, Rostov-on-Don) performed the task of transporting personnel from the Bataysk airfield to the Yeysk airfield after the party meeting in Bataysk. In flight, the flight engineer switched off the fuel supply from the floor tanks, which were filled for a long time and were not used. The kerosene in them settled and contained water. On the landing straight, 3-4 kilometers from take-off runway all four motors died out in turn. The crew tried to make an emergency landing in the estuary Sea of ​​Azov in shallow water. The plane's landing gear hit the water and pecked with its nose. Upon impact with the water and the bottom, the fuselage split and partially sank into the water. cargo compartment, where most of the passengers were, filled with water mixed with kerosene. It was a laboratory aircraft, not suitable for transporting people. Inside the cabin there was equipment that blew off on impact, which became main reason death of people. 24 people died in this plane crash.

November 23, 1996 Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 Boeing 767 flew from Addis Ababa to Abidjan, with stops in Nairobi, Brazzaville and Lagos. Shortly after entering air space Kenya, three terrorists hijacked the plane and demanded to head for Australia. On approach to the Comoros, the plane ran out of fuel, and the crew tried to land on the water in a shallow, quiet coast 500 meters from Le Galava beach. The plane caught the water with its left wing, rolled over and collapsed right in the water. Of the 175 people on board, 125 were killed, including the terrorists.

January 15, 2009 US Airways Airbus A320 flight 1549 from New York to Seattle with an intermediate stop in Charlotte ( North Carolina), FAC - Chesley Sullenberger, with 150 passengers on board, made an emergency landing on the water of the Hudson River in New York. Both engines failed during takeoff. All on board survived. Five people were seriously injured (the flight attendant suffered the most) and seventy-eight were minor.

Tu-124 landing on the Neva became one of the first cases of successful splashdown passenger aircraft. The crew of the crashed liner, at the cost of incredible efforts, managed to land the plane in the very center of Leningrad. The accident was avoided and no one was hurt.

Circumstances of the accident

August 21, 1963 passenger airliner Aeroflot Tu-124 was preparing to make a routine regular flight Tallinn - Moscow. The aircraft was assigned to the Estonian squadron. The commander of the ship that day was an experienced pilot Viktor Yakovlevich Mostovoy. The crew included co-pilot Chechenov and flight engineer Tsarev.

The liner took off from the Ülemiste airport early in the morning, at 8.55, and headed for Moscow's Vnukovo airport. After a few minutes of flight, the pilots discovered that the front landing gear jammed and it remained in a semi-retracted state. Returning to was not possible, as it was shrouded in dense fog. It was extremely dangerous to make an emergency landing in such conditions. The crew was ordered to fly to Leningrad and try to land there.

The fact is that an emergency with a faulty chassis is possible only on a special, plowed dirt strip. It allows you to minimize the risk of sparks during landing, which means avoiding fire or explosion of the aircraft. Such a band was in Leningrad. Pulkovo immediately took all the necessary measures in order to take emergency board. Everything in a short time emergency services airfield were brought to full readiness.

Over Leningrad

The liner flew up to Leningrad at about 11.00. Pulkovo specialists asked the plane to fly over the airport in order to assess its damage from the ground. Visual inspection confirmed that the nose landing gear was in a semi-retracted state.

The crew was ordered to prepare for an emergency landing. However, before committing it, it was necessary to develop excess fuel. The plane began to make circles over the city at an altitude of 500 meters.

Meanwhile, the flight mechanic Tsarev tried with all his might to free the jammed landing gear. To do this, he had to cut a hole in the floor of the aircraft cabin and, using a pole, manually, try to bring the rack to its normal position. All efforts were in vain.

The plane managed to make 8 circles over the city, when at 12.10 it turned out that there was no longer enough fuel for landing in Pulkovo. Suddenly, the left engine stalled. In connection with the complications that arose, the crew was given permission to fly directly over the city center in order to shorten the distance to the airport.

However, at the very moment when the plane was directly over Smolny, the right engine also stopped. The liner began to quickly lose altitude, and everyone who was at that moment in the center of Leningrad was under threat. In such emergency the commander, on the advice of co-pilot Chechenev, a former naval aviation pilot, decides to land directly on the Neva.

emergency landing

Mostovoy ordered the crew to distract passengers, and he, alone, began to plan over the city.

The plane flew over Foundry bridge at a height of 90 meters and managed to pass Bolsheokhtinsky just 40 meters from the water, miraculously not catching its high farms. Ahead was under construction. When the liner flew over it, the workers from the scaffolding jumped into the water in horror.

At the cost of the incredible efforts of the commander, the aircraft managed to successfully splash down a few tens of meters before the supports of the next, Finnish railway bridge. They say that Mostovoy turned gray in these few minutes.

The landing of the Tu-124 on the Neva was completed successfully, and the aircraft remained afloat, but due to damage received during landing, water began to flow into the fuselage. The old Burevestnik tugboat, which accidentally passed by and miraculously avoided a collision with an aircraft, managed to drag the sinking liner closer to the shore, to the territory of the Severny Press plant. One more happy accident wooden rafts stood near the shore in this place. The wing of the aircraft lay down on these rafts and formed a natural ladder along which all passengers and crew safely went ashore.

In total, there were 44 passengers on the plane, including two children, and 7 crew members. There was no panic, but once on the shore, people gradually began to realize that they had recently been on the verge of death. The crew of the plane was immediately sent for interrogation to the KGB, and the passengers were taken to Pulkovo, from where they were returned to Tallinn on the first flight.

Causes of the accident

The Tu-124 landing on the Neva was the first successful splashdown of a large passenger aircraft. But what caused the accident, which almost turned into a terrible disaster?

Tu-124 by that time was the latest brainchild of the Tupolev design bureau. It was designed and tested in a short time, and therefore had many minor flaws. One of them played a fatal role in the fate of the Estonian board. It turned out that during takeoff in Tallinn, the ball bolt of the front landing gear fell off the plane, it was later found on runway. Without this small but important detail, the front landing gear of the aircraft could not take its normal position, and it jammed. According to experts, landing with such a malfunction threatened to overturn the car. In such a situation, a successful splashdown of the aircraft may have been the only way to save the lives of passengers.

The second reason for the almost unleashed tragedy was the malfunction of the fuel gauge, which gave incorrect data on the amount of fuel on board. This common defect in many aircraft of that time was well known to all pilots, and many of them asked to refuel the aircraft a little big amount fuel than expected. However, this did not happen that day. In addition, before an emergency landing, it was necessary to work out maximum amount fuel, leaving only a little to reach the airport, and here the error in the readings of the device turned out to be fatal.

The fate of the aircraft

After all the people left the board, a special steamer was used to pump water out of the plane. But still, he could not cope with the rapidly incoming water, and soon the Tu-124 sank. The next day, pontoons were brought under the plane, it was raised from the bottom and towed along the Neva to the west Vasilyevsky Island where the military unit was located at that time. After inspection, the aircraft was written off due to damage.

His end was sad. The cockpit was cut off and sent as a flight simulator to the Kirsanov aviation school, located in the Tambov region. Beautiful soft chairs were sold to everyone at a price equal to the cost of a bottle of vodka. And the remains of the fuselage for a long time rusted on the shore Skipper channel until they were cut up and sold for scrap.

The fate of the crew

Initially, in the KGB and the Main Directorate of Civil Aviation, Mostovoy's heroic act was regarded as sloppiness, they severely reprimanded him and fired him from the squadron. However, due to the noise raised in the foreign press, the authorities changed their anger to mercy. They even wanted to award the commander of the ship with the Order of the Red Star, but the order was never signed. In the end, Khrushchev decided not to reward, but not to punish the pilot.

The entire crew was soon allowed to fly again. The co-pilot Chechenov after some time himself became the commander. Mostovoy also continued to work, but already as part of the Krasnodar squadron. In the early 90s, he and his family emigrated to Israel, where he was forced to leave flying and work as a simple worker in a factory. He passed away from cancer in 1997.

Consequences of the accident

Despite the fact that the landing of the Tu-124 on the Neva was successful, after this incident, all airliners were strictly forbidden to fly over the center of Leningrad. This ban is still in effect.

Mostovoy's amazing experience made a strong impression on pilots all over the world. An emergency landing of an aircraft on water is now being practiced on simulators in many airlines of the world. This is what allowed the American pilot to successfully land his emergency Boeing on the Hudson in 1997. Unfortunately, in our country, such training is not carried out.

August 1963 was remembered for a long time by many Leningraders who witnessed the unique landing. Many have seen the silver Tu-124 on the Neva with their own eyes, and this sight, of course, remains one of the most vivid memories of their lives.

Exactly 55 years ago, on August 21, 1963, a passenger plane flying from Tallinn to Moscow made an emergency landing on the Neva. Tu-124 landed on the water near the Alexander Nevsky Lavra. This is the only case in Russian aviation when no one died during the landing of a passenger plane on the water.

How did the Tu-124 crew manage to avoid casualties, why is this case compared to the “Miracle on the Hudson” in the USA, and what is the difficulty of landing the plane on the water? "Paper" spoke with aviation journalist Andrey Menshenin.

- Was the Tu-124 landing on the Neva a unique event in the history of aviation?

In the history of Russian aviation, this is the only case of successful splashdown (landing on water - approx. "Paper") with passengers on board when no one died. There are also very few such cases in world history, the most famous was in 2009 in New York, when the plane landed on the water of the Hudson River. A movie called Miracle on the Hudson was made about it. The vast majority of splashdown attempts fail - usually with casualties.

- In many media publications, the story of the Tu-124 is compared with the Miracle on the Hudson. How similar are these two cases?

Both cases fit the description of "a jet aircraft with passengers on board near the center of densely populated city compelled to land on the river. But of course the details matter. In the New York case, the cause of the engine failure was obvious: the plane had crashed into a flock of birds. The role of the crew is clear: they flew according to the procedure, encountered an emergency situation, performed a set of procedures to solve it, went beyond this complex with a successful result.

In the case of the Tu-124, it is still unclear what happened. We flew according to standard instructions, we encountered an emergency situation (the front landing gear jammed - approx. "Paper"), then something happened, and the crew ended up in a plane without engines over a densely populated city.

Landing of TU-124 on the Neva. Photo: Yury Tuysk

- Is it even possible to land a plane with a jammed landing gear?

Landing gear failure is not an unequivocal prerequisite for disaster, although it increases its likelihood. In modern civil aviation, most forced landings with retracted landing gear end without casualties. The Tu-124 crew had many chances to complete the flight safely.

Why did they have to land on the water?

There are two factors to note here. If they had not coincided, the plane would have landed on Shosseynaya (the old name of Pulkovo airport - approx. "Paper"), albeit with a jammed chassis. Firstly, the aircraft produced fuel (to reduce the likelihood of a possible fire during landing - approx. "Paper") at low altitude - 500 m. The lower the altitude, the more fuel the aircraft consumes and the less time it takes to work it out.

Secondly, the plane was left without fuel. Why it ended is not entirely clear. According to one version, sensors in the Tu-124 were junk, showing fuel that was not actually there. According to another, the pilots simply missed the moment when the fuel ran out, trying to fix the jammed landing gear. Another version: allegedly, under certain situations, a certain air funnel appears in the fuel system of the Tu-124, which prevents the fuel from entering the engine. To me this, of course, sounds doubtful. On the other hand, there could be some design flaws in the Tu-124, since then it was the very dawn jet aviation. In modern aircraft, all these experiences are taken into account: the wing is divided inside into compartments and you can pump fuel from any of them as you need.

If you exclude at least one of these factors, then the plane could fly to the airport. With a larger margin of altitude - for example, several kilometers - he could glide without engines to Shosseinaya. Such successful cases there are many more cases in the history of aviation than successful splashdowns. But 500 m is too little headroom. They only had enough to fly to the Neva.

Reconstruction of landing Tu-124

- Why is it so difficult to land a plane on the water?

On high speeds The elasticity properties of water are similar to those of concrete. But the fact is that, unlike the prepared runway of the airfield, the surface of the water is uneven. Because of the waves, the structure of the aircraft simply collapses. Land aircraft are not designed for such loads.

- How did the pilots manage to land the plane without any casualties?

Each of the successful splashdowns is seen as the result of great luck. In this case, there were several factors. Firstly, the landing was made by the co-pilot (Vasily Chechenev - approx. "Paper"), who had experience flying seaplanes. He mastered the technique of splashdown. It was one of the luck factors.

The second factor was that, apparently, there were practically no waves on the Neva. Third: when the plane was in the water, a tugboat passed by, which immediately pulled it ashore. Theoretically, it would be possible to get out of the plane, but in this case, there would certainly be panic and people would not know what to do.

How was the landing? Did the plane crash?

No. For each aircraft there is an operating manual, where in the section on emergency situations it is written what speed and pitch (angular movement relative to the main transverse axis of inertia - approx. "Paper") must be maintained for optimum reduction.

What is the real merit of the crew: when they were already in this stalemate, they managed to make a decision in a matter of seconds. These seconds are very important. The pilots were able to assess the situation and agree on what to do.

If we recall the adaptation of the Miracle on the Hudson, then the main complaint against Sally (pilot Chesley Sullenberger - approx. "Paper") was that he would have had enough time to fly to the airfield if he had begun the maneuver as soon as the engines failed. But while the crew was making a decision, the seconds flew by. In the end, they no longer had a choice - only to land on the river.

In several publications about the Tu-124 landing on the Neva, it is mentioned that the plane, according to eyewitnesses, flew directly to Saint Isaac's Cathedral. If he had not landed on the Neva, what would be the consequences?

The plane could fall to the ground, on residential buildings. It can be assumed what kind of catastrophe there would be, with how many victims. Suffice it to recall, for example, the disaster in Irkutsk in 1997 (the plane crashed on residential buildings, 72 people died - approx. "Paper").

Crew of TU-124. Far right - co-pilot Vasily Chechenev, next to him - commander of the airship Viktor Mostovoy

- After this disaster, did you continue to produce the Tu-124?

Yes, they flew a lot. Now, of course, it is not exploited.

- Are flights over St. Petersburg allowed now?

In St. Petersburg there are zones of flight restrictions, there are zones of prohibition of flights. Moreover, each of them is open to certain categories. aircraft. But if, for example, you need to fly from Pulkovo to Peter and Paul Fortress, then the plane will fly not over the city, but over the Gulf of Finland.

In the city center - in the no-fly zone - only state aviation and air ambulances, that is, the police, rescuers and the president, can fly. For the most part, these are, of course, helicopters. Passenger liners they don't go to the center at all. If the aircraft is landing on the second circle, then the trajectory will fly around the entire city - along the Ring Road and the WHSD.

It is believed that landing an aircraft on the water is an easier way out of emergency on board the plane, but experts believe that everything is not so simple. Successful splashdown of an airliner depends on several very important factors, the influence of which is not always positive.

Factors of successful landing of an aircraft at sea

An emergency situation that occurs on board an aircraft and requires the immediate landing of the aircraft may arise for various reasons. In the overwhelming majority of cases, this happens for technical reasons, due to the failure of on-board equipment.

According to many experts, the successful splashdown of an aircraft depends on the following fundamental factors:

• weather conditions;
• aircraft type;
• pilot skill.

Complexity similar situations is that all these factors must be taken into account by the commander and evaluated almost instantly, tk. seconds count. The lives of the crew and passengers depend on the correctness of the decision he makes.

Weather

In difficult weather conditions, when an emergency landing is carried out in rough seas with strong wind, the crew must take into account the strength of the wind, the direction of the waves and their height. The behavior of the aircraft in extreme conditions of emergency splashdown to a large extent depends on these conditions. At the same time, if we correctly evaluate all weather, splashdown in a stormy sea will not differ in complexity from landing on a calm surface of the water.

Important! The airliner needs to splash down parallel to the wave crests and in no case in the direction of the wave.

Important! Landing should take place at the slowest aircraft speed that is possible in the situation, but avoid too much nose uplift, which can lead to fuselage destruction upon impact with the water surface.

At this time, the aircraft is affected by colossal overloads, which, at the slightest mistake of the crew, lead to the destruction of the aircraft. If the ship's commander adequately assessed the situation and chose the correct course of descent and contact with the water surface, the chances of a favorable outcome and saving people increase significantly.

Additional Information:

• to assess the height of the waves and the direction of their movement, a height of no more than 600 m is needed;
• according to the laws of wave interference, the height of the successive sea ​​waves varies, so even in storm conditions there are calm areas on the sea surface.

Airliner type

In an emergency situation, the type of aircraft is important. According to experts, there are a number of patterns that positively or negatively affect the outcome of an emergency landing on water:

• the larger and heavier the airliner, the greater the chance of a safe splashdown;
• the fuselage, most often suffering from impact on the surface of the water, must have a significant margin of safety;
• retracted landing gear is a prerequisite.

Big passenger aircraft there are all the listed advantages, including reinforced fuselages. If the chassis system is in good condition, then it is not difficult to ensure their closure. If the landing gear is not retracted, then this can cause shocks and throws when in contact with the wave, and the result is damage to the wings and partial or complete destruction of the airliner.

Crew professionalism

The ship's commander cannot influence this circumstance, but by correctly considering the characteristics of his aircraft and assuming how it will behave in given conditions, he can minimize the risks of serious damage or destruction of the aircraft.

Without exaggeration, it can be noted that the lives of passengers and crew depend on the level of professionalism of the commander, because. He always makes the final decision. This factor is decisive. The extent to which the commander correctly assessed and took into account all the risks and capabilities of the aircraft ultimately determines the outcome of an emergency splashdown.

During training, all pilots learn how to act in various emergency and contingency situations, which are practiced on simulators and analyzed in detail in theoretical classes.

Important! After the first contact of the aircraft with the water surface, the aircraft loses control, and the pilots can no longer control it.

Important! During an emergency landing on a calm water surface, an important role is played by the correct assessment of the height of the aircraft above the water surface.

If it is difficult for the crew to correctly and accurately determine the height of the aircraft above the sea surface, it can be determined empirically by making several turns and throwing any objects into the water from the side. Then you can try to sit on the sea surface.

Splashing on rivers and bays

The most convenient for emergency splashdown are the so-called closed bodies of water such as rivers, bays, bays, etc. In this case, the crew should, if possible, make a preliminary circle and assess the conditions for landing:

• the presence of foreign objects;
• dimensions of the area for maneuver (cannot be less than 1500x90 m);
• wind direction;
• flow direction.

Important! With a weak river current, if the wind blows from the wrong side, from which it is necessary, then splashdown is performed against the wind.

Important! If the directions of the wind and current coincide, emergency splashdown is carried out against the wind and current.

Important! If the current and the wind are opposite, then the planes splash down against the direction of the wind.

The best is considered such a calculation of the landing trajectory, in which, as a result, the airliner will be near the coast, which will greatly facilitate the evacuation of passengers and crew members.

Actions of pilots during landing on water

In order to land the aircraft as safely as possible on the water, the crew must work smoothly and immediately follow all the orders of the commander. The sequence of actions in this case is as follows:

1. Remove landing gear and flaps, otherwise proceed as in a normal landing;
2. Transfer all engines to low speed;
3. Upon reaching a height of 2 m, the body of the aircraft should be leveled, and the nose should be slightly raised at the moment of contact with the water surface;
4. Flight to right place continues with excess of the critical speed level by 20 km/h;
5. When approaching the selected splashdown point, you need to release the gas and raise the frontal part in such a way as not to reduce the speed to critical;
6. After touching the water, the nose must be lowered so that the area of ​​\u200b\u200bcontact with the water surface is maximum, this will facilitate braking;
7. The position of the liner is controlled by the pilot in manual mode, using the elevator;
8. After the final braking, the crew must proceed to the evacuation of passengers.

Landing at night

In the event that an emergency landing of a crashed aircraft on the water occurs at night, you need to turn on the headlights after reaching a height of about 150 m and carefully monitor to correctly catch the moment when you need to level the airliner before contact with the water in order to prevent hitting the water surface or critical speed reduction.

Important! If the landing is carried out in cloudy or foggy conditions, then the lighting is not turned on.

In clear weather, splashdown is carried out towards the moon, this will give the most correct orientation and assessment of the situation, wind speed and direction, and the degree of sea turbulence.

Important! It should be remembered that in such a situation the sea surface seems less rough than in reality.

Evacuation of passengers and crew after splashdown

After the aircraft comes to a complete stop, the ship's commander must assess the situation and decide which emergency exits will open. This is done based on the position of the aircraft relative to the direction of the wind and waves, in order to prevent water from entering the emergency hatches.

After that, the commander gives the order to launch the life rafts and start the evacuation of passengers. The crew must organize the evacuation in such a way as to prevent panic, congestion a large number people in one place, because this can lead to a dangerous roll of the hull of the liner.

Passengers wearing life jackets are evenly distributed by flight attendants near all emergency exits. The process should take place as quickly as possible in order to have time to leave the ship before it begins to sink. The commander of the ship is in full control of the situation and must leave the aircraft last, after which he continues to lead the rescue and must request help via the emergency radio station.

Important! When determining emergency exits for evacuation, you need to choose those that are above the water level overboard, in order to avoid flooding the liner. This can be done by looking outside through the windows of the emergency exits.

Important! In the event of a storm at sea, you need to open emergency hatches located above the wings, and those that are on the leeward side.

Typically, life rafts are brought by flight attendants to the desired exit manually, fastened with special ropes to the exit door so that they are not carried away by the wave, and are dropped into the water. After that, a special starting rope (connecting the air valve to the gas cylinder) fills the life raft with air.

After the first life raft is filled with people, the second raft is lowered, and the first is connected with a rope to the second raft, which, in turn, is tied to emergency exit, etc. Thus, after the completion of the evacuation, all liferafts must be connected to each other with ropes of at least 8 m in length.

After that, you need to sail to a safe distance as quickly as possible so that the rafts do not get sucked into the funnel that forms when the plane goes to the bottom.

Important! If the painter connecting the raft with escape hatch will not be cut, then after the plane starts to sink, the painter will burst and the life rafts will be pulled after the sinking aircraft.

All crew members must act clearly and coherently in accordance with the instructions and orders of the ship's commander. The commander leaves the plane only after making sure that there are no living people in it.

Additional Information. There are times when an airliner does not sink and stays on the water, life rafts should not sail far from it, so as not to complicate the search for survivors by rescue services.

Historical reference

In history, the number of cases of successful splashdown of aircraft is more than a dozen. In Soviet times, one of the most striking cases occurred when a Soviet airliner TU-124 splashed down on the water surface of the Neva in extreme conditions. Thanks to the skill of the ship's commander V.Ya. Bridge and the high professionalism of the crew, there were no casualties, although the landing was carried out with the unretracted landing gear, which emergency landing on water can lead to irreparable consequences. 44 passengers and crew members escaped with bruises and scratches.

Another interesting and tragic case in the history of aircraft landing on water is the episode with the hijacking of an Ethiopian Airlines aircraft by terrorists, which took place on November 23, 1996. The terrorists forced the crew to head towards Australia, but in the area of ​​​​the Comoros, jet fuel ran out, and the crew attempted to land plane at sea. Everything happened in calm weather, not far from the beach, the depth of the sea did not exceed half a kilometer. But during the maneuver, the plane caught on the water with its wing, fell and fell apart. Of the 175 people, 125 were killed, including the criminals who hijacked the airliner.

A comical incident occurred in 2009 when, due to geese caught in the engines during takeoff, a US Airways airliner with 150 passengers on board splashed down on the Hudson. The plane landed safely, only 5 people were injured of varying severity, one of the flight attendants was seriously injured.

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Cases when planes landed on water are not so few in history. And, fortunately, many of them did without large-scale destruction and great loss of life. In all cases, people's lives were saved thanks to the high professionalism and well-coordinated work of all crew members who managed to prevent the destruction of the airliner during landing and prevent panic among passengers.