# Are flotation devices on planes EVER used?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-flotation-devices-on-planes-ever-used/62617>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 20, 2001, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-flotation-devices-on-planes-ever-used/62617 "2001-04-20T01:16:46Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![DaveRaver](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/daveraver/32/1078_2.png) [@DaveRaver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DaveRaver)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2001, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-flotation-devices-on-planes-ever-used/62617/1 "2001-04-20T01:16:46Z")

</div>

In the history of commercial aviation, have any passengers EVER been saved by those flotation devices you find in the seat backs of planes?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2001, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-flotation-devices-on-planes-ever-used/62617/2 "2001-04-20T08:02:22Z")

</div>

A commercial jet crashed in the ocean off a beach a few years back. It had been hijacked, and the hijackers wouldn’t believe the pilot when he said they were almost out of gas. Somewhere around 100 people swam to safety after it crashed, probably with the use of their flotation devices.

A few years before that, a jet skidded off a runway and wound up in the frozen Potomac. There was a lot of dramatic TV footage from that, showing passengers clinging to flotation devices and waiting to be pulled from the water by helicopter.

There are doubtless dozens of small commuter accidents in places where there is a lot of overwater flying, like Hawaii and Bermuda. A lot of those will be in water.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\
**Post date:** [April 20, 2001, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-flotation-devices-on-planes-ever-used/62617/3 "2001-04-20T11:48:49Z")

</div>

Footage of that crash can be found [here](http://aviation-safety.net/database/1996/961123-0.htm). It is the only incidence of a commericial passenger jet crashing in water and anybody surviving.

For planes with propellers, I can’t find any actual figures, sorry.