Originally Posted by
Davef68
Until that incident, I was sceptical as to whether a large passenger jet could make a safe ditching in water that would result in the passengers being able to evacuate, so much so that I used to inwardly say 'crashing into the sea' when the crew did the 'In the event of a landing on water' part of the safety brief.
In the Hudson incident, they were lucky that (a) the plane stayed afloat long enough and (b) the local boats etc were able to get there quickly. If either of those ahdn't been there, people would have had to take to the water.
Passengers taking to the water is actual procedure on many aircraft types anyway.
The Hudson is a perfect example of where a life jacket is of use. I.e take off and landing incidents around bodies of water or pre-planned emergency landings around bodies of water.
Everyone assumes that lifejackets are explicitely for “crashes” over oceans which is highly unlikely.