Sea
Survival
We previously published an article dealing with the theory
and practice of ditching a light aircraft. You may recall statistics included
in that article showed that your chances of surviving the actual ditching in
a general aviation aircraft are good, but your chances of being rescued alive
after the ditching are less than evens. Why? This article will briefly
explore aspects of sea survival around the United Kingdom, introduce the
theory of survival, and suggest methods of increasing your chances of living
to tell the tale of your ditching.
You can survive in the sea. I did. The information in this article is
realistic. I made a rather hasty descent into the sea when the water
temperature was less than 10°C and a full gale was blowing. I was extremely
fit, well trained and wearing the very latest immersion suit with all the
correct gear underneath. I was injured during the ejection and had lost my
dinghy and survival pack. My jaw seemed to be broken, my left shoulder was
dislocated and my spine had suffered a compression fracture. I was still
tangled up in the ejection seat when it hit the water. When I got back to the
surface I had a beacon with a combined two-way radio, a life jacket and some
flares. I had managed a brief MAYDAY call and a very professional team set
about my rescue. A combination of factors and good luck meant that a RAF
‘Nimrod’ maritime recce aircraft, a RAF SAR helicopter and HMS
‘London’, a very fast RN destroyer, all responded to my MAYDAY
call. The Nimrod and the destroyer pinpointed my position with remarkable precision
although I was being tumbled down the face of very big waves. The helicopter
picked me up less than an hour after I hit the water. Despite my excellent
equipment and my training I was unconscious by the time the winchman got me
into the helicopter and we picked up a doctor from the destroyer. My core
temperature was still dangerously low when I got to the theatre in a Royal
Navy hospital. Plenty of tender loving care from the Royal Navy nurses did
the rest.
I was wearing the right gear, I was fit and well-trained and a well
planned rescue operation began as soon as I made my MAYDAY call – yet I
would not have survived for much longer in the sea conditions on that day in
March. I was also very lucky to have all those rescue teams close by. Luck
alone is not enough.
Survival in the seas around the United Kingdom is demanding in any
season of the year. The sea is a vast, lonely, inhospitable place for a
survivor. Believe me, no matter how well trained and equipped you are,
finding yourself tumbling about in a rough sea a long way from anywhere is
very frightening. The water temperatures around the UK are never going to be
comfortable and are usually cold enough to kill an unprotected survivor very
quickly.
Survival
in any environment depends on two basic factors:
Knowledge. Your chance of survival increases with knowledge. The
ultimate key to survival is to KNOW that you CAN survive. The only way to
KNOW is to have practised your survival techniques before you find yourself
in a survival situation. Understanding the principles of survival, the
correct use of survival equipment and an understanding of the search and
rescue services will all add to your chances of survival and reduce the fear
of the unknown. Unless you have prepared to survive before you stepped into
your aircraft the stark facts are that, statistically, you have a 32% chance
of being rescued alive following a ditching in UK waters. Knowledge comes
from training and study. The purpose of this article is to encourage private
pilots to seek training in sea survival, to be prepared to survive by
understanding some of the problems involved and to present priorities for
survival in the sea.
The Will to Survive. This is not an automatic instinct. Discomfort,
fear and despair can lead a survivor to give up long before death actually
approaches. The will to survive depends largely on the psychological make-up
of the individual, on his reasons for wanting to remain alive and on his
determination. Knowledge will increase your determination.
There are
four basic principles of survival in any hostile environment. These are, in
order of priority:
Protection. The survivor must protect himself against
the cold and avoid long immersion in the water. You will become incapacitated
and die very quickly unless you have protection from the hostile environment
of the sea. Cold, sea sickness, drowning, confusion, fatigue, despair and fear
are just some of the factors that you must overcome to survive in the sea.
You cannot overcome these unless you have prepared to do so.
Location. Once the survivor has made sure that he is not going to die quickly
from exposure, hypothermia and/or drowning his next priority is to assist the
search and rescue services to find him as quickly as possible.
Water. You can live for some time in the seas around the UK without water but
you will probably be dead from exposure long before you die from thirst, so
drinking water is not a primary consideration in our particular
scenario.
Food. Despite the evidence of what seems to be a good proportion of our
population permanently clutching food and drink as they go about their daily
life you can actually survive without permanent harm with nothing to eat for
2-3 weeks.
Be Prepared
Your survival after a ditching depends on the preparations you have made
long before you began the flight. I cannot repeat that advice too often. Just
wearing an immersion suit and life jacket and carrying an emergency
transmitter is not enough. You need to know how to use your survival
equipment while in the water and what it feels like to be faced with
surviving – even in a swimming pool. The only way to increase your
chances is to be prepared to survive.
Your actions before flight can increase your survival chances. The
planned profile of your flight over sea should include thoughts of survival.
Have you filed a Flight Plan? That alone will help the search and rescue
services to react quickly and search in the right area. Have you got a
sensible fuel reserve? Have you planned the crossing at a sensible altitude?
When the engine fails (carb icing, dry tank, mis-selection?) have you allowed
yourself enough height to sort it out or make a radio call before your
ditching or are you faced with a few panic-stricken moments before the
aircraft hits the water? My home is close to the beacon at Strumble Head in
Pembrokeshire. I see many light aircraft setting off across the Irish Sea at
low altitude. Why? Yesterday I watched a Bonanza cruising out above the broken cloud at an
altitude of five or six thousand feet. Obviously flown by a wise pilot. Have
you carefully rehearsed yourself and your passengers on the sequence of
actions to be taken if faced with a ditching? These drills may seem overly
dramatic on the ground but they could save lives. Don’t be afraid to
adopt a professional attitude to all aspects of your flying.
Life After Ditching
Your actions after ditching will depend on many variables including whether
your aircraft is high-winged or low-winged, upright or inverted, intact or
severely damaged. A high-winged aircraft will tend to float with the wings
on, or just below, the sea surface. This means the cabin and doors will be
below the surface. Have you thought about opening the doors and getting out
from a flooded cabin? A low-winged aircraft will tend to float with the cabin
mainly above the surface and should be easier to evacuate but a sliding
canopy may become distorted and stuck shut during the landing impact. What
does your Pilots Notes or Owners Manual have to say on that subject?
Once your aircraft comes to rest on the surface you need to get
yourself, your passengers and your survival equipment out of the cabin
quickly and in a planned sequence. Who gets out first, by which exit? Who is
responsible for bringing which piece of survival kit out of the cabin?
It’s far too late to think of this when you are in the water. It would
be a great shame to see your aircraft slip below the surface taking your
carefully purchased survival kit with it.
Your lifejackets must not be inflated until you are out of the
aircraft. If you have a dinghy, then get that inflated and attached to
yourself. The fittest person should be first into the dinghy because it is
much easier to assist others to board when you are supported by the dinghy
than it is to try pushing people upwards from the water. Try it in the
swimming pool. Be aware that a drifting life raft can travel faster than the
strongest swimmer, even in a slight breeze. The easiest way to help another
survivor into a dinghy is for the survivor in the water to position himself
vertically in the water with the back of his head against the flotation
chamber. The person already in the dinghy then pushes down on his companion
and grabs his shoulders or lifejacket lobes and ‘bounces’ him
into the dinghy on his back. That’s another good thing to have tried in
the swimming pool.
If you haven’t got a dinghy get all the survivors into a tight
huddle and stay together. This will help to reduce heat loss and improve
morale. If you are alone in the water the best survival position is with your
knees bent and arms crossed to reduce heat loss. Thrashing about only
increases your rate of heat loss. You may survive long enough to be
found.
To understand just how vital it is to have proper protection from the
cold sea it is necessary to understand what hypothermia is and how its onset will
affect your chances of surviving long enough to be rescued alive.
Water is 25 times more conductive than air. A human immersed in water
loses heat very quickly and hypothermia begins as soon as your body core
temperature begins to drop below the normally maintained value of 37°C. The
definition of hypothermia is ‘the decrease of core temperature
to a level at which normal muscular and cerebral functions are impaired.’ The table below
shows the progression of this impairment as your core temperature drops when
your body loses heat to the sea.
