An apparatus comprising a float bag comprising an air bladder configured to inflate when an aircraft lands in the water, a girt coupled to the air bladder and configured to attach the air bladder to the aircraft via at least one airframe fitting, and a load attenuator coupled to the girt and configured to be positioned between the girt and the airframe fitting when the float bag is attached to the aircraft, wherein the plurality of load attenuators are configured to mechanically deform in a progressive failure fashion from a first effective length to a second effective length greater than the first length in response to an applied tensile load on the load attenuators coupled to the plurality of girts and the aircraft airframe, wherein the load attenuators are selected to reduce the force with a total length that minimizes buoyancy depth of the aircraft.