Just watched the news about the Air Canada crash in Halifax that they want to claim was just a "hard landing".
I can only imagine the distinction matters for insurance purposes otherwise they are just being idiots. Pretty poor behavior for the airline whatever the motivation IMO.
Now i'm no plane expert but I think when then plane is smashed up, the engines have come off and the nose is in pieces that should be obviously classed as a crash. If you can't take off again then you have been in a crash, not a hard landing.
http://rt.com/news/244953-air-canada-crash-halifax/
In other news, more info is coming out about the "hard landing" (into a mountain) of the Germanwings plane ...