From: "Manfred Saitz" <msaitz@xxxxxxx> Sent: Monday, August 08, 2005 2:19 PM <snip> > Is it after all possible to go down on water without disintegrating (has > it ever been managed with an aircraft nod designed for water landings)? > I remember a picture of a DC8 in lake Victoria, which had stayed more or > less integer. Was that only because it happened in shallow water? > In the mid thirties a United DC3 from SF to LA turned about 300 degrees at a radio range (the old low frequency A-N) intersection instead of the correct 120 and flew out over the Pacific until a change in dispatchers (control was through ARINC, not FAA) caused the new dispatcher to ask for the magnetic compass reading. The dispatcher talked the pilot into turning 180 and heading back toward LA. The engines quit just short of the beach and the plane ditched. The captain got everyone out through the cockpit on top of the floating plane. During the night everyone but the captain and one surviving passenger were washed off the fuselage and drowned. The airplane came on the beach the next day with a dry cabin. For years thereafter every radio transmission from a United plane had to end with the magnetic compass heading. Of course the DC3 probably had a stalling speed around 50 knots or less, so the intact ditching was a lot easier than in modern transports. The ditching of the hijacked Ethiopian plane (was that a big Airbus too?) at the Comorros Islands led to the breakup of the airplane and the death of a number of those aboard. The Boeing StratoLiner or StratoCruiser that ditched in Puget Sound last year survived intact, but it too would have had a lower stalling speed than most current airliners. I don't remember any ditching of land planes other than those three. Gerry http://www.pbase.com/gfoley9999/ http://home.columbus.rr.com/gfoley http://www.fortunecity.com/victorian/pollock/263/egypt/egypt.html