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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 prior belief, new analysis suggests that controlled forced landings, whether in water (ditching) or on land (including trees), offer a similar high survival rate of approximately 9 out of 10 occupants.
  • However, a significant difference lies in the injury rate: landing in trees substantially increases the likelihood and severity of injuries compared to ditching in water.
  • Pilots facing an emergency landing should prioritize occupant survival, as the aircraft is almost certainly a total loss regardless of the chosen surface.
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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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