Water isn’t soft at 150 MPH. If you survive the crash (and it will be a spectacular crash) you now have to deal with drowning, hypothermia, and the inability to get rescue crews to the scene.
Here’s what a trained pilot of a hijacked planed managed to do when he ran out of fuel.
I read once that pilots die at the control of airliners basically every year somewhere in the world. It is never publisized and isn’t even that big of a deal because that is a big reason they have two pilots. I have no idea if it is true but it has to happen sometimes.
??
There was an (semi-recent 5 years or so) instance where a non pilot landed a small single engine plane OK. (The pilot had a heart attack) He MAY have had some flight training, but was no where near the solo stage.
I think there was some damage to the plane. IIRC they landed on the grass rather than the runway
I THINK this is it:
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-64658744.html
Brian
True, but water is a lot softer than the ground, and the target area is a lot bigger. Further, assuming the plane is relatively intact, the big jets float and have liferafts, giving the surviving passengers time to evacuate and somewhere safe to which to evacuate. And hopefully be near enough to shore for quick rescue.
123 dead out of 175 is better than all dead. Youtube link. Note that in that case the jet was out of fuel, whereas in the putative case here, the jet would have fuel.
Yes. It’s possible. My first time in the left seat, I took off and landed the plane with verbal-only assistance from a real pilot sitting on my right. It was a small plane, but I did it. I will make no comment as to whether this is a safe, or even legitimate, training technique. I suspect it doesn’t happen all that often in any event.
Is that an actual rule? :dubious: 
My husband isn’t a pilot, but he is a sound engineer for a company that builds full-flight simulators for the airline industry, of all different types of planes. Part of his job training was an abbreviated ground school (basically, this is a plane, these are the parts, this is why they exist) and in building, upgrading and certifying the simulators by the FAA or equivalent, he spends a lot of time in them, listening to the sound and verifying/tuning etc. He’s been doing this job for just about a year.
Naturally, by testing the sound during start-up, take-off, flight at various flight levels and landing, he gets to “fly” the sims. He’s pretty sure he could manage to land a commercial plane (he’s mostly familiar with the CRJ 700/900, the Embraer 170/190 and the Boeing 747) he’s pretty sure there would be damage to it! Occasionally he comes home and tells me he managed a “successful” landing, but that’s basically just saying the plane didn’t blow up. During qualification, when a trained pilot flies the sim, and compares the realism to their experience in a real plane, his “successful” landings really don’t compare!
Sorry, posted the wrong link. Quartz posted the link that I meant to post. :smack:
I’ll just slink away now.
I don’t think that’s a good assumption. Has there ever been a case of a plane landing in open water where the fuselage stayed intact and any life rafts were deployed? I doubt it could really happen, especially with an unskilled non-pilot at the controls.
Not what I was thinking but:
Brian
I really wonder if a water landing is better than landing on unobstructed ground.
There have been a few incidents where aircraft have landed safely on foamed runways, and plenty of icidents in WW2 where heavy bombers have bellied in on grass strips.
Given a choice of landing on open water or a long level field of grass, I would choose the grass. When a large airplane lands on water, it skims along the surface until it reaches a certain speed and then sinks in. That speed is usually still high enough to cause the aircraft to come apart.
It would be hard enough to be the passenger selected to land a 747, but imagine if you had to do it here.
It’s a joke- in the classic comedy Airplane!, everyone who ate the fish became deathly ill.
If it was me, I’d aim for something soft, like a schoolyard full of orphans.
I realize that, but I’ve also heard that there’s a real FAA regulation that the pilot and co-pilot can’t eat the same meal in case of food poisoning.
Really? Well, damn… that would be interesting. Makes sense, though, I guess.
Yeah-I suppose it’s as possible as winning Powerball. Perhaps I’m pessimistic after reading 20+ years of NTSB reports in which properly trained professionals managed to screw up the process. No crosswind, no funky approach, no icing, no equipment malfunctions? Yeah-I’d make a nice long runway scar before enjoying immolation, my last thought being, “Shit-it looked easier in the movie.” 
Quoting myself from an old thread:
I was once able to run one of the large multi-million dollar 747 cockpit flight simulator things. So this is about as close as one can go from computer flight simulators straight to flying a real jet. My comments on that experience are that:
- There are a whooole lot of buttons you need to press and knobs you need to turn to operate a plane. However, someone telling you what to do is sufficient to be able to find and operate these various buttons and knobs.
- 747s handle a lot better than I had expected. Still sluggish of course, but not bad.
- I did land it successfully–if at a steeper dive than everyone else in the cockpit felt comfortable with
- I distinctly remember the view out the window as looking 3D (i.e. where I could sense depth) even though I was wearing no special glasses. So either my brain fritzed out on this memory fairly quickly after doing this, or the multi-million dollars enabled them to do some pretty impressive visualization
- I don’t think I would have succeeded landing a damaged airplane. If I had a few runs in the simulator then maybe, but getting it right the first time without overshooting the runway or burying your nose into the cement would be unlikely
So, my personal guess would be that if the plane was still in fully working order and you had flown a lot of flight simulators, you would probably succeed with someone telling you all the proper buttons and knobs.