This is back from May, but it’s worth noting. A news story chock-full of the little events that can add up to disaster!

From the article:

Confused Jetstar pilots forgot to lower the wheels and had to abort a landing in Singapore just 150 metres above the ground, after the captain became distracted by his mobile phone, an investigation has found.

Major points:

• Pilot forgets to turn off cell phone and receives distracting messages prior to landing.
• Co-pilot is fatigued.
•  They do not communicate with each other before taking action.
•  Another distracting error occurred involving the flap settings on the wings.
• They do not use the landing checklist.

I was most surprised by that last point – I didn’t know that was optional! Any pilots out there want to weigh in on how frequently checklists are skipped entirely?

 

 

Photo credit slasher-fun @ Flickr