Originally Posted by
Travelin Man 069
Several months on a flight to ORD we were circling out over Lake Michigan (which seems to happen quite a bit) the ride was a little bumpy and then the aircraft suddenly tilted to the right pretty hard - it only lasted a few seconds, and the FA got on the mic and issued a similiar warning regarding a water landing. I felt the same way as you did, staring down at those white caps and wondering to myself just how far I could swim in that freezing water (as if I would be so lucky...)
I was reading about water landings today and it appears that survivability from controlled ditching is pretty high (rather than simply crashing into the water @ high speeds as that is probably going to kill everyone on the plane). High meaning greater than 60%.
Also some are preventable fatalities such as people getting trapped on the sinking plane because they panicked and inflated their life vests while in the plane (which prob would be something I would do).