What happens if an airplane engine fails while flying over the Ocean?
My name is Charly Dat Duc Lai and I wonder what happens if an aircraft loses all power while flying over the Pacific Ocean, even though if there are no airports nearby and there no safe place to land the plane. Let's just say that we're on a vacation from Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, traveling to Tokyo, Japan, the airplane is somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean or your flight is half way to Tokyo, and then suddenly all of the engines fail unexpectedly and the aircraft loses all of it's electrical power, there's no land nearby and there are no nearby airports to make an emergency landing, it is all just all Ocean Water only. How do the pilots to get the aircraft to touch down safely without putting the passengers and flight attendants at risk?
Added (1). From Charly Dat Duc Lai:
Flying over land is no big deal since that it is easier to find soft landing spots and in many other cases, there are many nearby airports on land, therefore it is more easier for airplane pilots to make emergency landings, but however, flying over the Ocean and the aircraft loses all engine power is a huge difference and a big challenge for the pilots to get the plane to land safely and hopefully that the plane does not crash into a shark infested territory.
Added (2). From Charly Dat Duc Lai:
Who do they contact to get emergency help so they don't get surrounded by sharks? I also flew onboard an airplane before, I was traveling to Vietnam from Chicago, flying over the Northern Pacific Ocean, so, I know that in real life planes often flying over Oceans a lot due to long-range international flights. An answer from a real airline pilot would be much more awesome and by the way, I live in Chicago, Illinois.
Added (3). YouTube video links below:
Flying over the Ocean.
Your seat cushion is a flotation device, but only last for 24 hours.
If the failure is controllable and the pilot knows how to glide and crash controllably on the water then there's a call out for a MayDay with position location and the plane ditches in the water - those who survive and escape are hopefully rescued in time. You take your chance with sharks - but really the chance of any plane crash is extremely low.
If you lose all of your engines while too far from land to glide there, there's a slight possibility that your feed will get wet
If an aircraft has to ditch there's a standard emergency procedure that pilots train for. There's always risk with a water landing so it is negated by having redundancy built into the aircraft systems so that a total power loss is extremely unlikely. Most multi jet aircraft can still fly on one engine
Landing a plane laden with fuel on water is just about impossible for even the most skilled pilot, even if the fuselage did not break up on impact the chances of being rescued immediately out in the middle of the ocean are zero, planes do not float for very long it would be at the bottom of the ocean long before any rescue got there, you fly you take your chances, nothing is guaranteed 100 percent
Everyone on board will have a 99% chance of dying.
Simple… The airplane crashes into the water and you all die.
Chances of survival are virtually nil. Water is not a soft surface to land on, the impact would be catastrophic.
If they were able to radio a distress call before the power went out it would make little difference, a lifejacket may keep a person afloat for days but they would drift with the current and die of thirst and exposure if not shark attack, the planes black box would signal its position on the ocean floor but debris does not stay in one place.
Rescuing any survivors would require a miracle or at least some amazing stroke of luck, fortunately a complete power failure is about as rare as winning the lottery so I don't think we need to worry much about it.
Everybody dies.
Unless there's a nearby cloud the pilot can park on to wait for maintenance to come out an fix the engines the chances are all on board will die. Either from the initial impact, drowning or eventually dehydration.
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