Ditching[1] is a controlled emergency landing on the water surface in an aircraft not designed for the purpose, a very rare occurrence.

The availability of a long effective runway was historically important on lifting size restrictions on aircraft, and their freedom from constructed strips remains useful for transportation to lakes and other remote areas.

[4][5] Early crewed spacecraft launched by the United States were designed to alight on water by the splashdown method.

Alighting over water rather than land made braking rockets unnecessary, but its disadvantages included difficult retrieval and the danger of drowning.

[8] Reasons for ditching vary, but the most common are the following: engine failure, flat spin, and pilot error.

A limited number of pre-World War II military aircraft, such as the Grumman F4F Wildcat and Douglas TBD Devastator, were equipped with flotation bags that kept them on the surface in the event of a ditching.

The vast majority of space launch vehicles take off vertically and are destroyed on falling back to earth.

[99] Each vertical-takeoff spaceflight system to date has relied on expendable boosters to begin each ascent to orbital velocity.

[98] In October 2024 the upper stage of SpaceX's Starship spacecraft performed a controlled, high accuracy water landing in the Indian Ocean near a pre-positioned buoy that captured footage of the splashdown.