Scary: Spirit Airlines Flight Prepares For Water Landing

It’s not entirely clear as of now what the issue was that caused the diversion. Based on looking at flight tracking software, it looks like the plane was able to maintain its altitude, as it leveled off at 5,000 feet, prior to descending, and then leveling off at 3,000 feet.

It’s also not known why the cabin was prepared for a water landing. As far as I know, this isn’t standard for all diversions involving an island departure. So was there an additional risk and actual concern that the plane wouldn’t make it back to the runway, was it a miscommunication, or what?

This reminds me of that Cathay Pacific incident

It seems like in the above case, the water landing preparations were just made out of an abundance of caution, rather than because a water ditching was actually planned. I think it’s safe to say that the thought of an aircraft “landing” in the water would terrify just about anyone.

This concept always reminds me of a 2015 Cathay Pacific Boeing 777-300ER flight from Hong Kong (HKG) to Los Angeles (LAX). The aircraft was over the Bering Sea, when smoke detectors went off. Smoke (or a fire) over water is of course incredibly concerning, given the lack of diversion points.

The plane ended up safely diverting to the remote Eareckson Air Station in the Aleutian Islands (a remote part of Alaska), formerly known as the Shemya Air Force Base.

Given how remote the airport is, plus that it’s a US air base, passengers ended up having to stay onboard the aircraft for an extended period of time, prior to eventually continuing to Anchorage (ANC).

Video footage from inside the cabin gives me goosebumps, since I can’t even imagine how terrifying it is to think that you might have to ditch in the Bering Sea, far from any civilization.