In this emergency situation, what would a pilot do?

Question

If they are forced to make an emergency landing (similar to the miracle on the Hudson) and there is no nearby airport or water, what would be the next option? 

Answer 1

I know I'd start lookng for a wide, straight stretch of highway.

Answer 2

A long stretch of road or open field.  

Answer 3

You can land this on a jungle I guess

Answer 4

Of course they look for any open area like a field. This notion that the TV gives when there’s a crash “ the pilot heroically avoided a school/hospital/houses etc, is rubbish.

They are looking out for their own survival. Crashing into buildings is certain death, coming down in the field may give you a chance to survive.

Answer 5

If there is no nearby Airport runway the next choice is a straight road or some open field.

As the pilot has maybe a minute or two to select a place they do not have perfect choice and do what they can. Believe it or not the pilots like to survive just as much as the passengers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkOg9qh3unM

TACA International Flight 110 in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1988. Landed on a levee.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD3liu46BsM

The plane is coming down one way or the other. The pilot tries for a survivable landing place.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ivH7tLiFLY

A few pilots have successfully glided planes hundreds of miles to a safe landing.

Air Transat Flight 236

Air Canada Flight 143

Many many others.

Answer 6

They will have to find a something.   Something that only halfway suitable but within reach is better than something perfect but out of reach.

Champer cited one example of of a forced landing on a levee.  Another example was Scandinavian Airlines flight 751.   The MD-81's engines flamed out shortly after take off.  Captain Rasmussen elected to attempt a landing on a snow covered field.  While the aircraft was destroyed, there were no fatalities among the passengers and the crew. 

Answer 7

The next option is whatever has to be done.  An open stretch of road, a farm field, a grassy field, a frozen lake, a beach.

When a pilot is forced to make an emergency landing, it means staying in the air is not an option.  The plane is going down and nothing can stop that, so the pilot has to figure out the best available and hope for the best.

Answer 8

They'll do whatever they have to do, there was that incident in New Orleans where the crew were going to ditch a 737 in a canal after engine failure and then spotted a levee. They carried out a superb grass landing on the very short levee.  After the engines were replaced the aircraft was returned to service. . . .

Answer 9

Roads are good. Friend of mine flies up in Alaska and they land on the roads quite often.

And I've heard of crop spray operators landing on country roads.

A chap in this area lands his small jet on a grass strip that used to be a hay field.

Answer 10

Try to find a place that has the least amount of people so maybe an open field. 

If the freeway isn’t busy, it could be used as a runway.