Originally Posted by
givemewings
The Hudson river case, someone asked about, the rear slides did not deploy because the procedure says you don't use them in ditching since the door sills are underwater. Ditto for the overwings, they are slides only not rafts IIRC...
Indeed, many of the pax seemed to come out by the overwing exits, and were standing on the wings (hopefully balanced on each side). But apart from the idiots who brought their suitcases with them, the most notable thing in the photographs was lack of lifejackets by anyone. In Europe the lifejacket briefing would have been given just a couple of minutes earlier on such a domestic, supposedly "not over water" flight. But in my recollection the majority of actual ditchings have not been out in the open sea at all, but on water close in, typically actually within sight of the runway; even the Ethiopian 767 in the Indian Ocean had the runway in sight.