How do you perform a ditching or emergency water landing?
Learn how to perform an emergency water landing: choose a touchdown path, configure the aircraft, ditch with control and evacuate after impact.
To perform a ditching in real-world aviation, keep control, transmit a Mayday, select the safest reachable water, prepare the occupants, configure the aircraft exactly as its emergency checklist directs, and touch down wings-level at the lowest safe controllable speed. Evacuate only after the aircraft stops, inflating lifejackets outside.
A ditching is a forced water landing by an aircraft not designed for routine water operations. This is general fixed-wing guidance: the aircraft’s AFM, POH, QRH or cockpit checklist takes priority, while helicopters require type-specific rotorcraft procedures.
Ditching procedure step by step
The correct sequence is aviate, communicate, choose, prepare, configure, touch down and evacuate.
- Fly the aircraft. Establish the published best-glide or engine-out speed, trim, and maintain it while assessing the failure. Use any remaining power to extend range or reduce the final descent rate; never stall while trying to stretch the glide.
- Declare the emergency. Transmit Mayday on the active frequency or 121.5 MHz if necessary. Give the position, altitude, aircraft type, number of people and intended ditching area. Select 7700 and activate available locator equipment if the checklist permits and workload allows.
- Select the water. Look for the smoothest reachable area clear of rocks, boats, floating debris and breaking surf. Consider distance from rescue, but never aim directly at a vessel. Water is not automatically safer than usable land; our forced-landing decision and approach sequence explains the wider choice.
- Prepare the cabin. Tighten lap belts and shoulder harnesses, secure loose objects, brief the brace position and identify usable exits. Put lifejackets on but do not inflate them inside. Unlatch or crack doors only when the aircraft checklist calls for it, since opening them too early can cause additional drag or admit water.
- Configure the aircraft. Set landing gear, flaps, propellers, fuel and electrical systems according to the ditching checklist. Do not copy another aircraft type’s configuration.
- Fly a stable final. Approach at the specified ditching speed with minimum practical descent rate. Hold the wings level and use a slightly nose-high landing attitude without stalling. Shut down engines or electrical systems before contact only at the checklist’s specified point.
- Remain restrained. Expect a violent deceleration even after a gentle-looking touchdown. Keep the brace position and do not release the harness until the aircraft has stopped.
Which direction should you land on water?
Use a heading that minimises impact speed without driving the aircraft across steep swells: generally into wind on relatively smooth water, but parallel to a well-defined ocean swell.
| Water and wind | Preferred approach | Main hazard |
|---|---|---|
| Calm water or small chop | Normally into wind, subject to obstacles and the aircraft checklist | Glassy water can make height almost impossible to judge |
| Clearly defined swells | Parallel to the dominant swell, using the flattest visible section near a crest or gentler back face | Crossing or striking the steep face of a swell |
| Strong wind crossing the swell | Compromise between a useful headwind component and avoiding steep wave faces | Applying either the into-wind or parallel-swell rule blindly |
| Coastal water | Outside breaking surf and clear of rocks, piers and vessels | Aiming for a beach and entering the surf zone |
Normal floatplane operations are different because the hull or floats are designed to enter the water. Use our normal seaplane water-touchdown procedure rather than applying ditching technique to an amphibious aircraft.
Should landing gear and flaps be up or down?
Retractable landing gear is normally kept up during a landplane ditching, but the aircraft-specific checklist is the authority.
Extended wheels can dig into the water and pitch the aircraft forward. Fixed gear cannot be retracted, while an amphibian must normally have its water-landing gear configuration confirmed carefully; landing on water with amphibious wheels extended can cause a severe overturn.
Flap is often used to reduce touchdown speed, but the prescribed setting varies. Full flap is not automatically best because it may add excessive drag, alter pitch response or leave too little control margin. Configure early enough to stabilise the approach rather than making a large flap change close to the surface.
Touchdown technique on smooth and rough water
The best chance of a survivable touchdown comes from low vertical speed, wings level and the correct attitude—not simply the lowest possible airspeed.
On glassy water, reflections remove useful depth cues. If power remains, establish a known landing attitude and shallow descent, then hold them rather than making an abrupt flare based on apparent height. Without power, preserve flying speed and accept the touchdown rather than pulling into a stall above the surface.
In rough water, avoid steep wave faces and do not bank close to contact; a wingtip striking first can cartwheel the aircraft. Best-glide speed gets the aircraft to the selected area, but it is not necessarily the published touchdown speed or final configuration.
What should you do after the aircraft stops?
Evacuate through an exit that remains above water, leave baggage behind and inflate lifejackets only after leaving the cabin.
If the aircraft is inverted or submerged, keep one hand on a fixed reference, locate the exit and release the harness last. Take a raft, locator beacon or survival equipment only when it is immediately accessible. Move clear of leaking fuel, keep the group together and remain close to the raft or visible wreckage unless fire, sinking or surf makes that unsafe.
How can you practise ditching in a flight simulator?
Use a simulator to rehearse priorities, checklist discipline, speed control and touchdown attitude—not to predict real-world impact survival.
Start with a known aircraft in daylight and calm conditions. Introduce an engine failure at enough altitude to establish the glide, make the Mayday call, choose a water area and complete the checklist without pausing. Our MSFS 2024 engine-failure recovery priorities cover the work that must happen before committing to water.
Judge each attempt by approach stability, airspeed, bank angle, descent rate and configuration. Water physics and damage modelling vary sharply between simulators and aircraft add-ons: some declare a crash at first contact, while others let unsuitable aircraft float unrealistically.
For a structured airliner exercise, FS2004 users can try the Hudson River ditching scenario with approach and touchdown tasks. Whatever the platform, use the real aircraft documentation rather than treating the simulator’s survival message as proof that the technique was sound.