Remember kids, according to an FAA review of accidents, no type of water ditching has lower than an eighty percent survivability rating. So putting it in the drink is always an option.
Not really sure what "water ditching" means but I assume that's any time the airplane ends up in the water instead of on land?
If that's a case, then there's definitely the type of water ditching where the plane angles into the water at full speed, and I don't think that's gonna have 80%
Not maybe, yes. Thats what it means. "Water ditching" is a common colloquial name for an "emergency water landing" which is a type of emergency landing. A plane doing a nose dive straight into the water is not an emergency landing. That's just a run of the mill crash.
Flight instructor here: "ditching" is the technical term for landing a land plane on water. Here's the procedure from the Pilots Operating Handbook of a Cessna 172S:
I'm pretty sure by "type of ditching" OP means the water conditions. Ditching near the beach is often safer a roadway landing. The least safe is ditching in rough seas in the middle of the ocean, but even that has a surprisingly high survival rate. Pilots don't always know this, and sometimes give up, not knowing that if they glide the airplane carefully down to the water, their chances of living are pretty good.
then there's definitely the type of water ditching where the plane angles into the water at full speed, and I don't think that's gonna have 80%
Pretty sure last time that happened it was still ~30%, which seems pretty impressive considering the video: https://youtu.be/w1u0D0E-Bq0 (SFW but it is a plane crashing)
This is just a review of NTSB data and some ditchings may have gone unreported. The main point is that ditching, even in the open ocean is very survivable.