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