Not necessarily. A "forced off-airport landing" could also be the result of an engine failure beyond gliding distance of an airport. Or engine fire, medical emergency in remote area, etc. There are many emergencies that could force an aircraft to the ground, off-field.

Not all off-field landings result in an accident, or "crash".

From our own regulations, NTSB 830 "NOTIFICATION AND REPORTING OF AIRCRAFT ACCIDENTS..." https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/49/830.2

>Aircraft accident means an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft which takes place between the time any person boards the aircraft with the intention of flight and all such persons have disembarked, and in which any person suffers death or serious injury, or in which the aircraft receives substantial damage. For purposes of this part, the definition of “aircraft accident” includes “unmanned aircraft accident,” as defined herein.

So while some off-field landings could be classified as an accident, that would only be the case if the off-field landing met the above definition.

I think it would be rather hard to land a plane off the airport without substantial damage, especially when talking about larger ones.

For small 4-6 seater general aviation aircraft it's hard (relative to a normal landing), but not at all unheard of. A modern 4 lane highway is more than wide enough, and very probably has a long enough straight section within range, to make for a relatively uneventful landing if you can get traffic to cooperate.

You're absolutely correct though when it comes to larger aircraft. I rather doubt there are any examples of an off airport landing of a 737 without significant damage to the aircraft.

> I rather doubt there are any examples of an off airport landing of a 737 without significant damage to the aircraft.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TACA_Flight_110

Well, I stand corrected. That's both surprising and an incredible feat of airmanship by the pilots!

Since I love reading about these kinds of incidents and the best way to solve a problem is to claim it's impossible, I amend my claim to "I rather doubt there are two examples of an off airport landing of a 737 without significant damage to the aircraft." :)

The famous Gimli Glider wasn't badly damaged either, although it was a 767!

Looks like they had about 5000ft to work with. Not great, but not bad either.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/30%C2%B001'52.7%22N+89%C2%...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TACA_Flight_110 made a dead-stick landing on a grass levee with minor damage - it was later flown out (following an engine change which caused the landing in the first place)

For other confused readers:

A deadstick landing,is a type of forced landing when an aircraft loses all of its propulsive power and is forced to land. The "stick" does not refer to the flight controls, but to the traditional wooden propeller, which without power would just be a "dead stick".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadstick_landing

Indeed, but planes are quite repairable. I don't have a source for this (too lazy to look), but I briefly worked for boeing on a government contract to service C-17 aircraft for the air force. There was a story there of a C-17 landing on a dirt/sand field somewhere in the middle east (this is normal there) except in this case there was a small concrete barrier out in the middle of the field that wasn't seen. The front nose gear impacted the barrier and it torn the nose gear off along with a large chunk of the underside of the fuselage. As the front of the plane touched the ground, the hole scooped up sand and blasted a ton of it into the cargo bay. A crew was flown out there and they "fixed" it and it was flown back to the states.

Another popular instance was the Lockheed EP-3 flying the China coast in 2001 before impacting a Chinese fighter in the air and making a forced "rough" landing. It was taken apart and shipped back to the states where it was repaired in Waco Texas and continues to patrol the China coast to this day.

> planes are quite repairable

The Qantas A380 from Singapore to Sidney that had an uncontained engine failure was repaired and entered service again, at an estimated cost of about $150m, or about 1/3 of the price of a new one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qantas_Flight_32

I was thinking that too, but ditching a plane into water doesn't really count as a crash. Not sure it counts as a "landing" either, but hey...

A forced off-airport landing is not a necessarily crash. It’s an action taken, usually because of engine failure or imminent engine failure, to mitigate risk to the occupants of the craft. The pilot acts with intention and glides or flys the craft to the ground. They slow the craft down enough to touch down safely. The incident could still be considered an accident if there’s damage to the structure of the plane or injury to passengers.

In contrast, a crash could be a lot of things: two planes colliding on the tarmac, loss of wings, or a controlled flight into terrain (such as flying into the side of a mountain).

i also like crashing into a mountain:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Controlled_flight_into_terra...

and in space flight: "off nominal"

And you know the checklist for forced off-airport landings at night?

1. Airspeed - SET

2. Fuel Valve - OFF

3. At 100 ft: Landing Lights - ON

4. If you don't like what you see: Landing Lights - OFF