Texting Pilot Forgot To Lower Landing Gear During Near Tragic Accident

In May 2010 a Jetstar plane was forced to abandon its landing just 392 feet above the ground when it was realized that the pilot forgot to put down the landing gear, now the official report from that accident has been obtained by The Age and in it aviation officials say the pilot was busy reading text messages and simply “forgot” to put down the plans landing gear.

The captain was flying the plane from Australia to Singapore and during the flight investigators uncovered many errors that started once the plane descended below 2,000 feet. It was at that height that the pilot started to receive a slew of new text messages while attempting to fly the aircraft.

During the investigation the Airbus A320’s co-pilot said the pilot was “preoccupied with his mobile phone” and because of that device he failed to answer the co-pilots requests on two occasions. When the place approached just 1,000 feet off the ground the co-pilot realized something was wrong but couldn’t out what the issue was.

By the time the captain realized the landing gear was still up he tried twice at 650 feet to rectify the situation but both attempts failed and an alarm sounded which required the pilot pull back up after a failed landing attempt.

According to the pilot he realized his phone was not turned off and he was simply trying to unlock the device so he could shut it off.

The report also claims that the co-pilot was likely fatigued during the trip because of long work hours. Jetstar has been accused in the past of bullying pilots into longer than normal working schedules:

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