Originally Posted by AdamK
I would also say that biggest thing the f/a does not emphasize is to not inflate the life vest before exiting. In fact, I know many airlines do not even say that in their presentation/video.
Not sure about other airlines, but the FAs on UA seem almost religious about saying, live (not on the recording), not to inflate life vests before exiting the aircraft. Of course, this announcement may be to compensate for the fact that the demo video shows a guy inflating the vest in his seat. Oops.
However, we should keep in mind the minute probability of a water landing. Even if there was a water landing, the cabin would probably be extremely damaged, perhaps even split open (was that the Ethiopian Airlines 767?).
That was not a controlled ditching; the cockpit crew was fighting hijackers (who failed to understand the concept of "no fuel") for control of the plane. Medium-large aircraft acually float quite well after a controlled ditching and may not even sink.
Some Russian plane ditched into a river in the 60s and was towed to shore (floating); there was another river ditching in Indonesia in 2002. I could only quicly find a photo of the later incident; kind of strange to see an aircraft tied up to a dock like a boat.
http://www.geocities.com/khlim777_my...hingissues.htm