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Water or Trees?

When faced with a controlled forced landing, water offers little danger. Surprisingly, the same is true of heading for the trees.

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • Contrary to previous assumptions, controlled forced landings on land (including in trees) have a similar fatal accident survival rate (approximately 90%) to ditching in water.
  • While survival rates are comparable, the likelihood of sustaining injuries, particularly serious ones, is significantly higher in a forced landing into trees compared to ditching in water.
  • Open fields offer the best outcomes for survival and minimal injury among land options, and pilots should always prioritize occupant survival by considering the aircraft expendable in an emergency.
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If you fly long enough and often enough, sooner or later youll face the prospect of having to put an airplane on the deck in a hurry. If youre lucky, itll be due to just a sick passenger or maybe a rough engine. But it could just as well be a full-up-oil-on-the-windshield forced landing.

In the latter, youre confronted with the sudden and unavoidable question of where to put the thing down. Is a road the best choice? An open plowed field? Settling into a dense pine forest? A nice lake, near the shore?

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