Originally Posted by
FlyingOfficerKite
What are the chances of an engine failure over the sea? Well I've never had an engine failure of any kind in over 40 years of flying.
However, the outcome if you do is likely to be death. You don't expect to die when you go out in your car if the engine fails. If the engine fails over land during daytime VFR you are trained to react and carry out a forced landing.
I've never had any training in ditching, either as a PPL or as a commercial pilot, other than swimming and getting into a dinghy in a warm, calm swimming pool. Not really the preparation you would need to survive a ditching in a choppy, cold sea just after the trauma of surviving a crash and possible injury and shock.
I have had engine failures in single engine aeroplanes. I have had an engine stop over water in a Bulldog, but got it going again. I actually think one of the main problems ditching (as apposed to force landing on land) in an aeroplane with a fixed undercarriage is that the aircraft is likely to tip upside down. That will certainly be a problem, especially in an aeroplane with a bubble canopy. Most pilots will never have done the RN 'dunker' so may quite well drown. The chances of the engine stopping are slim; you pays your money and you takes your chances.