It's an unfortunate reality of air travel that emergency and crash landings occur from time to time. Fortunately, these are relatively rare when you consider how many flights take place on a daily basis. Nonetheless, for larger aircraft, an unplanned landing anywhere other than an airport usually means the plane will need to be dismantled and scrapped for parts. So why is this the unfortunate reality of emergency landings? The answers may seem obvious, but let's look at some real-world cases, the list of reasons, and the surprising exceptions.