Originally Posted by
JimmyTheJock
Why bother giving them out at all...the chances of surviving a landing on water is so small...as oposed for example over-running the runway at GIB...HKG...PHL or anywhere else near water...in which case the aircraft are rarely submerged.
But of course it's not NIL...before anyone reminds me of the rather miniscule number of incidents when people have successfully emerged...perhaps the issue of Tesco Will-writng kits would please most on this board...as long as we got the points from their purchase!
I well remember the lifejacket drill on Concorde...oh yes...we come down at 1,350mph from 60,000ft and you think I need a lifejacket...what I would have wanted was another LARGE G&T!
AFAIK, no water landings by commercial aircraft have had survivors, barring those runway overruns of course. I also believe that the emergency slides have never actually been used as rafts. The only exception I can remember is the hijacked Ethiopian airlines jet that landed (crashed) near Mauritious or the Seychelles or Comoros close to a beach; many of those who died actually inflated their life-vests too early, leading to some passengers becoming trapped in the sinking fuselage sections because they could not swim underwater (to safety). They ended up drowning with their life vests inflated, very tragic.
So, it might actually be argued, in a water landing, forget the life vests entirely! (Well, better probably... just follow instructions: don't inflate until outside the aircraft.)