Freakonomics on “the unlikely event of a water landing…”
Anyone who’s flown on an airplane whose flight path was going over water has heard the airline song and dance about “in the unlikely event of a water landing…” and what we can do in case we land in water.
Freakonomic’s author Steven D. Levitt writes about his friend, Peter Thompson, who researched the topic back over 35 years (encompasses over 150 million commercial airline flights), there has not been a single water landing!
Levitt noted that some planes explode and fall into the water, but grabbing on a flotation device doesn’t help in such instances. In fact he couldn’t find anything resembling a water landing where any of those instructions might help passengers. So perhaps 15 billion customer trips have heard that 10-15 second set of instructions without it ever being useful to anyone. Ever.
h/t: Marginal Revolution
tags: freakonomics Air Travel
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June 28th, 2006 at 8:14 pm
I thought that flick with Tom Hanks, Cast Away, was based on a true story. Even though that was a Fed Ex plane, not a commercial jet, the principle still holds: you’ll want something to hang on to when it all goes kabloey.
July 14th, 2006 at 2:38 pm
I seem to recall the ‘Maximum Exposure’ or ‘Real TV’ shows actually showing a water landing due to hijacker. It was a successful landing up until the hijacker was a twit and caused the wing to catch water and roll. The beach go’ers immediately set out on search and rescue, those left on the beach helping offload the loaded boats as they returned.
It is unclear if the seat cushions did squat but it technically was a water landing. There were survivors.
July 14th, 2006 at 6:04 pm
I got harangued by someone else telling me something of a similar nature. Not sure how Levitt or his guy got it wrong but I think their point still makes sense.