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We were having a discussion at work about airships (zeppelins, blimps, etc.) and someone spoke about them sinking when they crash. Someone else said they can't sink because they're not descending through water.

So we googled the definition of the word sink, and got this:

  1. go down below the surface of something, especially of a liquid; become submerged.
  2. descend from a higher to a lower position; drop downwards.

The second definition means that an airship sinks. Then the same person that said it wasn't descending through water asked if that means skydivers are sinking.

Is there a better word than sink to describe what an airship does when it falls from the sky?

NVZ
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Dan Temple
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    I think an airship can "sink" (lower and lower, throgh the clouds, toward the ground) when it descends, but it sounds a bit awkward to my ear and does not imply crashing, just a reduction in altitude. – Nick Weinberg Jul 01 '16 at 13:12
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    Aircraft fall from the sky all the time. Usually they do this safely, and we call it a landing. Sometimes the impact is too hard, and it is called a crash. – Sumurai8 Jul 01 '16 at 14:30
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    If deliberately caused to do so, it is "taken down", "shot down", "brought down", or "felled"... I'm sure there are more ways to describe this. Else it "plummets", "descends", "drops", "tanks", "falls"... and so on. Perhaps it is relevant to note whether the crash was intentionally caused by someone or not. – Mentalist Jul 01 '16 at 14:51
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    Maybe comparing an airship to a submarine would be more appropriate. Is the question about the normal ups and (especially) downs of an airship, or catastrophic failure? – Eric Smith Jul 01 '16 at 15:24
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    I'd still say it sinks. The definition you linked says "ESPECIALLY through a liquid", implying that it's not just the liquid. I could also point out it's an airship, implying the same things as a ship. Furthermore, would the answer to this apply to submersibles, as it's the same concept, just underwater? I've hardly heard of a submarine crashing.... – Anoplexian Jul 01 '16 at 17:01
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    In casual usage, if you told me an airship had "sunk", I would picture it falling out of the sky, crash landing on water, then sinking through the water to lie on the sea floor. – TessellatingHeckler Jul 01 '16 at 18:17
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    If it's the Hindenburg it crashes and burns, not necessarily in that order. – Hot Licks Jul 01 '16 at 18:44
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    The airship is clearly de-altituding :) – MonkeyZeus Jul 01 '16 at 19:07
  • An airship can crash while it is not sinking, by level flight (or by drifting) into an obstacle, and it can sink without crashing; an accident-free flight usually includes sinking quite a bit. Crashes have been caused by sinking too far, sometimes because of other events that caused uncontrolled sinking. Without more context about how the word "sink" was used in relation to airship crashes, it's hard to say whether it was used appropriately. – David K Jul 01 '16 at 21:43
  • Maybe it falls? – Sweeper Jul 02 '16 at 12:19
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    It "Hindenburgs"? – Aron Jul 02 '16 at 14:09
  • It laughs and points. Bazinga! – Josh Jul 02 '16 at 17:44
  • it's totally normal and commonplace to speak of an aircraft (or, unusually, a blimp) "sinking" – Fattie Jul 03 '16 at 14:12
  • note that skydivers completely normally use the term "sink rate", just as all pilots do. – Fattie Jul 03 '16 at 14:14
  • Hopefully relevant and useful: if a submarine is catastrophically downed, it also sinks, like a ship. If it deliberately sinks, it submerges or dives. Thus, even under water, the sinking of a vessels is catastrophic, and not simply a loss of altitude. A submarine can be sinking which can be deliberate, but if you sink an enemy sub, the meaning is clear, and the meaning of the past participle sunk is clear also. These meanings can't apply to an aircraft. – Kaz Jul 03 '16 at 18:08
  • FWIW, the word "sink" is also often used when talking about winged airplanes. Specifically gliders. Gliders either "climb" (sometimes also called "float"), "glide" or "sink". Depending on context, the word "sink" refers either to what the air around the glider does or what the glider does. But it is not restricted to gliders. Small light aircraft can sink too. – slebetman Jul 04 '16 at 04:11
  • Airships and spaceships crash. Although that would be confusing in reported speech, the most common (and quite pessimistic) term in the present continuous is crashing. I like the more accurate alternatives in the top rated answer. – Nick Jul 05 '16 at 03:18
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    Ironic that the Hindenburg is being used so often here in the context of Crash & Burn when in fact it was still airborne when it caught fire and only then did the burning wreckage crash to the ground. – Steve Barnes Jul 06 '16 at 17:19

11 Answers11

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'Descend,' 'dive,' 'drop,' and 'fall' are all perfectly fine and, in the case of an uncontrolled descent, 'crash' does indeed tend to be the end result (though this refers specifically to what happens when it stops falling due to an undesirable form of contact with terrain.)

However, 'sink' is still perfectly valid to describe the actual falling. Indeed, pilots use the term 'sink' (usually when descending faster than normal) and use the term 'sink rate' to refer to the rate of descent of an aircraft.

From Wikipedia:

The rate of decrease in altitude is referred to as the rate of descent or sink rate.

Similarly, Ground Proximity Warning Systems on newer aircraft use the term 'sink' when they produce automated callouts. When an excessive rate of descent is detected by the radio altimeter, the following callout may be generated:

Sink Rate! Pull up!

When altitude is lost after takeoff or with a high power setting, the following callout may be produced:

Don't Sink!

Source: Wikipedia. Also, I'm a pilot (of small airplanes) and hear the terms frequently used by other pilots.

reirab
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  • This. Think of an action setting "We're sinking!" in an airship sounds valid, as a ship isn't completely submerged until it goes completely underwater, making crash inapplicable. Falling would work, but then this begs the question about what happens when submersibles "sink"? – Anoplexian Jul 01 '16 at 17:04
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    @Anoplexian Yeah, that's another interesting point. Usually you'd only say a submarine "sank" if it was actually destroyed and became unable to surface. If it was intentionally "sinking" the word used would be "dive". – Ajedi32 Jul 01 '16 at 18:52
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    An airship is comparable to a submarine, but sinking a surface ship is usually irreversible because the upper deck is not waterproof. – AmI Jul 01 '16 at 21:04
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    +1, a boat sinks until it has sunk. An airship sinks until it has crashed. – DCShannon Jul 01 '16 at 21:21
  • @DCShannon Eh, no. A sinking ship is never a good thing. A sinking airship can be deliberate, but a crashing airship implies the sinking and eventual impact on the ground are not deliberate. – Insane Jul 01 '16 at 21:43
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    @Insane If intentional, it would be more appropriate to say that the airship is descending, or diving, not sinking. – DCShannon Jul 01 '16 at 21:45
  • @DCShannon Paragraph 2 of the answer you commented on clears up that yes, sinking is used in a professional setting... – Insane Jul 01 '16 at 21:46
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    I just checked reirab's profile - he has 7k rep on Aviation.SE. I'm inclined to trust that. – Insane Jul 01 '16 at 21:48
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    @DCShannon Depending on the rate of decent, an airship sinks until it has landed. "Any landing you can walk away from is a good landing."—Folklore. : ) – Stan Jul 01 '16 at 21:55
  • "Usually you'd only say a submarine "sank" if it was actually destroyed and became unable to surface" this is utterly incorrect. in aircraft, or submarines, "sinking" simply means "going downwards". – Fattie Jul 03 '16 at 14:13
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    I love the wording here. I can imagine an official report stating: at 1400 hours we experienced an undesirable form of contact with terrain. – candied_orange Jul 04 '16 at 01:15
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    I think that the word you are looking for in the first paragraph is "lithobraking". – dotancohen Jul 04 '16 at 06:53
  • @dotancohen Ha! In this case, I think 'lithobreaking' would be equally appropriate. – reirab Jul 04 '16 at 16:40
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Very simple, it crashes.

This word has been used throughout the history of airships. Most famously the Hindenburg.

An airship is just another form of aircraft. It is not a ship of the seas. The vocabulary of flight is applied.

Chenmunka
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  • Same thing as with a spaceship. – Panzercrisis Jul 01 '16 at 14:40
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    I may be mistaken, but I think this answer misses the point of the question. The first sentence contains "someone spoke about them sinking when they crash.". The question is about sink, so crash doesn't seem to be a problem. Maybe @DanTemple can clarify so we can be sure – Thomas Francois Jul 01 '16 at 14:41
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    "Crash" refers to a collision--a skydiver descends, a plane that loses air pressure makes a rapid descent, but neither crashes till it hits the ground. –  Jul 01 '16 at 14:44
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It plummets.

Plummets - A steep and rapid fall

Clarskon
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  • Yes! I was thinking "hurtle", but that doesn't indicate direction. Plummet is perfect. – SaganRitual Jul 02 '16 at 05:21
  • "Hurtled earthward" handles direction. – Dave Newton Jul 02 '16 at 10:00
  • Doesn't hurtle sort of implies that it was given direction by an external agent. – Clarskon Jul 02 '16 at 10:03
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    I believe this best describes an 'uncontrolled descent' which was the essence of the question. +1 –  Jul 02 '16 at 23:04
  • An airship can crash without ever having plummeted. One could descend in a very controlled manner and then get out of control only a moment before landing, with or without an impact with some object other than the ground. – nnnnnn Jul 03 '16 at 03:22
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It falls

It's not part of the plan for a ship to sink and it's often due to unfavorable circumstances. An aerial craft in free-fall is the closest equivalent I can think of. On an airship this would like be cause by a puncture or any other escape of the gaseous body.

Corrected Answer - "Founder"

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Jacksonkr
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    +1 for founder. I had someone tell me once that their project was "floundering" and was very confused what flat fish had to do with the matter... – Wolfgang Jul 01 '16 at 21:34
  • Founder was given as a first answer by slomobile. – Stan Jul 01 '16 at 21:57
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    @Wolfgang - Actually, either "foundering" or "floundering" can be appropriate, and sometimes both at the same time. "Floundering" means "flopping about", which is something that projects in trouble often do. – Hot Licks Jul 02 '16 at 02:53
  • When the answer was edited and flounder was suggested, and written in HUGE bold letters, 07-01 at 16.45, Racheet's answer founder had already been suggested on the same day but at 15.06. – Mari-Lou A Jul 04 '16 at 05:56
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The reason that "sink" does not sound right when applied to an airship is because "2. descend from a higher to a lower position; drop downwards" can describe a normal part of airship operation. Therefore, it does not convey the same implication of unintended, uncontrolled, ominously doomed descent, as when applied to surface ships.

Plummet and fall, work in that sense, yet an airship might potentially recover unscathed from that condition with quick action(ie. engines restarted). For a surface ship, a sinking event is interpreted as its end, recoverable only as salvage. So in that sense crash is the correct word.

One word that does apply equally is founder.

slomobile
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Any aircraft losing altitude is typically said to be 'descending.'

de·scend dəˈsend/ verb

1. move or fall downward.

"the aircraft began to descend"

synonyms: go down, come down; drop, fall, sink, dive, plummet, plunge, nosedive

When it hits the ground in an uncontrolled way it has crashed.

brandondoge
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I think maybe it drops.

drop:

to fall vertically; have an abrupt descent.

to sink or fall to the ground, floor, or bottom as if inanimate.

Source: Dictionary.com, definitions 33 & 34.

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Kate
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    Hi, Kate. I added formatting to your quoted language and a citation (with link) to the source of it. This is important information to include in your answer when you quote content from elsewhere. – Sven Yargs Jul 02 '16 at 02:53
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In the context of war, or it being crashed through forceful means, consider using the verb "down".

down

verb informal past tense: downed; past participle: downed

  1. knock or bring to the ground. "175 enemy aircraft had been downed" synonyms: knock down/over, knock to the ground, bring down, topple; More
davidtgq
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5

I think you can use dive:

  • To fall head down through the air. (AHD)

A dive

  • may technically be described as "a steep descending flight path". While there is no specific definition for what degree of steepness transforms a downward trajectory into a dive, it is necessarily a rapid, nose-forward descent.

  • Dives are used intentionally in aerobatic flying to build speed for the performance of stunts, and by dive bombers to approach a target quickly while minimizing exposure to enemy fire before the dive. A dive may also be used as an emergency maneuver, for example to extinguish an engine fire.

Wikipedia

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  • A dive need not be incipient. I have made dives to loose altitude quickly by choice and I'm still here keying this into a comment. – Stan Jul 01 '16 at 16:07
  • As per your own definition, dive implies a head down fall, which may not be the case at all when an airship crashes. – nnnnnn Jul 03 '16 at 03:33
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"If a ship sinks, what does an airship do?"
It depends on whether the airship is roped to the ship or not! ;)
As others have pointed out, a ship moves in a two-dimensional space, the surface of the sea. If it sinks, that is the end of the ship! But an airship moves in 3-dimensional space: if it sinks, it merely loses altitude. Until, that is, it crashes (if forcible) or lands (if deliberate). I have observed that the word 'descends' most often denotes deliberate, intentional action, whereas 'sinks' may denote unintentional descending, e.g. as result of loss of air, but context would modify that observation.

A Rowland
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I think one can legitimately talk of "sinking" in any fluid medium, not just water -- especially for descent because it's no longer less dense than the medium it's in.

Consider the behaviour of the little boat in this video -- it's a boat made of foil floating on sulphur hexaflouride gas. When the person uses the beaker to scoop up gas and fill the floating boat until it falls to the bottom of the tank, I think that sink is exactly the right word for what the boat does.

Similarly people often speak of helium-filled toy balloons that eventually lose enough helium to no longer stay up as "sinking" to the floor.

If a boat can sink in gas, and a toy balloon can sink in air, what is so different about an airship that comes down?

If it came down rapidly, that could be called a crash but if it descends so slowly that no damage is incurred ... "crash" would seem out of place, but sink would still be a reasonable description (among others).

Glen_b
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