Imagine being on a plane small enough where there are just 2 rows of passengers with an aisle between them. I mean, “there isn’t even a door separating the passengers from the cockpit” kind of small. Whether it’s a commercial airline or privately owned, lots of people would already feel kind of uncomfortable being on one of those tiny “puddle jumpers.”
Now imagine you’re coming in for a landing. You’re videotaping from your window, when all of a sudden you realize you’re not going to reach the runway but are going to have a water landing! Do you panic? Scream? Threaten the flight attendant if she doesn’t do what you tell her to do? Or do you just keep on videotaping, as this person did:
When I originally scoured the internet to get more information about this footage, I couldn’t find any details. I know it was posted on TikTok. But no one seemed to know where it happened or the details of the water landing. Obviously, we know the person who took the video survived (and had a waterproof phone/camera) but that’s about it.
And then I hit the proverbial jackpot.
The video turned out to be a small snippet of a longer video that was from 2013 and posted on YouTube in 2019. It was footage of when a Honolulu-bound Cessna 208B Grand Caravan lost engine power shortly after take-off and ditched (did a controlled water landing) into the Pacific Ocean near Kalaupapa, Hawaii.
Here’s the full video:
Here’s the summary of what happened via the Aviation Safety Network.
I find it amazing that no one on the plane freaked out when all this happened. You hear a male voice say, “life jacket” not long after the plane hits the water, but that’s really the only person you hear saying anything before they evacuate.
I found the footage fascinating, so I did some Googling and learned more about ditching. It’s not an easy thing to do but, of course, pilots are trained for such emergencies. Here’s more information about ditching, from a pilot’s point of view.
Of course, the other people who must know about exactly what to do during a ditching, especially on a larger plane, are the cabin crew. They’ve been trained for this (start watching at 3:50 pm for the actual water evacuation). Here’s more of what flight crew need to know for water landings.
Of the 10 passengers and 1 pilot on board, 1 person passed away due to complications of a heart condition.
Feature Photo: Peter van der Sluijs / Wikimedia Commons
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
