life-wests and ditching
Maybe off the thread, but from what I been reading, a successful water ditching is near impossible, with today's aircraft designs.
Those that did do a successful water ditching had better belly profile, such as the DC8, or Nimrod or DC9, or even the 737 - 200 Adv
Today's aircraft have engines slung below in such a way (that is the theory) that the moment one of the enginers or both touch the water, they will be ripped off and self-destruct the aircraft.
On a comparison, how many modern aircraft have had successful belly landing ?
I still believe that the reality is ... life vests are only for psychological purposes .. except in the rare cases, such as that of the african 767 (forgot the of carrier .. ) where the pilot hit one enginer in the water, and ended up anyway cart-wheeling the rest of the aircraft, the chances of survival are close NIL.