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Distracted by Cellphone, Airbus Captain Forgets Landing Gear

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An Airbus A320 captain is in hot water after investigators found he was forced to abort a landing below 500 feet after preoccupation with his cell phone caused him to forget to deploy the landing gear. (www.flyingmag.com) और अधिक...

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danishnelson
Danish Nelson 9
Does any on notice that this was published a month ago and the incident happened in 2010??? I hope I'm not crazy but that's what it looks like its saying.

Read the last paragraph.
preacher1
preacher1 1
Actually, it was published April 20th of this year and it was a 2010 incident
onceastudentpilot
tim mitchell 3
I gave you a thumbs up buddy....screw the haters...lol
danishnelson
Danish Nelson 2
andytyler
Andy Tyler 1
its funny i posted this exact same thing and got negative votes lol
JD345
JD345 3
It's all in the delivery.
sparkie624
sparkie624 3
I have had that as well... I do not know.. Just the audience at the time I guess.
goodnight033
Kelvin Lam 4
Probably in the near future, the Airbus call out will be changed to:
"Minimum... 50, 40, Landing Gear, Retard!!"
onceastudentpilot
tim mitchell 1
until someone throttles back and a plane comes crashing down short of the runway
jimquinndallas
Jim Quinn 6
I wonder if these guys ever heard the term 'sterile cockpit'?
genethemarine
Gene spanos 4
Just think...this guy has a license to drive too!
skyfly12
shawn white 2
Don't they have a pre-landing checklist that is done before they get that low. All they have to do is look for the three green triangles to show the gear is down.
sparkie624
sparkie624 1
Yes they do, but there is no where that says for the pilot to put down their cell phone. A good example is one of our pilots had an MEL for their APU Start Fuel Pump being INOP that stated to use the Left or Right Boost Pump. They failed to recognize that the Fuel Pump required AC power. Applied Ground Power and APU Started Normally.
k2lck
Ed Mentz 2
ahh, no matter how good you are, sooner or later you are going to screw up..after that, luck takes over...
akayemm
Er.A.K. Mittal 2
Extremely irresponsible behavior and the least he deserves is some kind of suspension and/or down grading his licence. Short time digressions during 'auto pilot' may be acceptable but while landing ! OMG !! No way . Unless , on a serious note (cf. Yazoo's note below written in a lighter vein) ,IF his phone DID have landing APP and he was trying to maneuver through it, even this would be branded as a too late reaction at an assumed height of 800 feet ! The main article clearly says that he was busy reading a text message (at as close as assumed 800 ft. while landing) So he deserves to be penalized in an exemplary way .
chalet
chalet 0
You are being too lenient, his license should have been rovoked FOREVER and follow up with a civil if not penal lawsuit, nothing less. What kind of grey matter this guy posseses, any except for someone responsible for tens of thousands of lives during a career. By the way does anyone know what kind of punishment was inflicted upon the Northwest pilot and copilot of the AB 320 that went past the Minneapolis destination by a good 150 miles and failing to report several check points along the way.
jimquinndallas
Jim Quinn 3
The alarming thing is the fact that the FO allowed this to happen, knowing that safety outranks the captain stripes, though we all know that sometimes the person in the left seat can be quite intimidating. It's not always easy to criticize the pilot, but when it comes to safety there should be no hesitation. The FO arrives at the crash site at the same time as the pilot...
onceastudentpilot
tim mitchell 2
the FO was most likely the flying pilot and probably just didn't notice....bad on the captains part but there have been other situations where the gear wasn't brought down just due to cockpit overload.
skralex
alex friedmann 1
ridiculous, there is no other word to espress my oppinion.
this guy should be arrested, as he put the life of hundreds of people under risk.
now, my question , why we are informed of it only after two years?
Is there anyone serious in this field?
preacher1
preacher1 1
Well, I didn't see it either but some of the comments below indicated it was posted a couple years back. My question is how it came to light in the first place. Obviously the pilot opted for a go round and then made a normal landing. FO would have had some implication here too so chances are he wouldn't have said anything, and there has been no NTSB or airline report that has came to light regarding the aftermath as far as disciplinary action on the pilots. As with you, it is strange to me as to why it's coming out again after 2 years.
johnsjets
John Reyes 1
Resurrected...a boring day for news.
mhlansdell00
Mark Lansdell 1
My bet is it came out in a hanger flying session. There was no incident and so no report, kind of a no harm no foul.
suchet
suchet singh yadav 1
It appears to be an old story?
THRUSTT
THRUSTT 0
mustang2030
Josh Green 1
How do you forget landing gear duh
Yazoo
Yazoo 1
Damn new IPhone .... He was trying to find the app for the landing checklist!
FYI: Electronic devices in the cockpit below 10,000 ft is already here as carriers and companies transition to an electronic flight kit.

preacher1
preacher1 1
So true and they are nice. I wonder why the FAA hasn't figured that out yet.LOL
akayemm
Er.A.K. Mittal 1
.....his preoccupation with his cell phone was "just one of a number of factors" that played a role in the 2010 incident. "Others included" the late realization of an autopilot warning light and a cockpit conversation about the Singapore skyline, among other factors......
Friends , this is what is mentioned in the article ..... incident was in 2010 AND the report has been published recently after (a thorough probe) investigation . Christmas in on the way so ... LET THERE BE PEACE IN THE WORLD .
AP2099
Anthony Phillips 1
How could you forget the Landing Gear??
This sounds like it can get serious quick.
And it should.
mhlansdell00
Mark Lansdell 1
They won't give um police planes
mhlansdell00
Mark Lansdell 1
It appears that distracted driving doesn't only affect automobile operations. That said and it doesn't matter when it was written, if you haven't read it it's new news. Any body wanna venture a guess as to what the second pilot was doing at the time? Do wee need to go back 20 years in technology and install auto gear like the Arrow?
Looks like Airbus is so automated the drivers get board and complacent.
AP2099
Anthony Phillips 1
It was published April 20 of this year.
genethemarine
Gene spanos 1
Are these types of incidents kept on the QT for some reason - then ?
Thanks
Best to all the pilots here!
Stay Safe!
Gene the Marine
preacher1
preacher1 1
Well, somebody here said they posted this back in 2010 when it happened so I dunno. Like I said earlier, if he just opted for a go round, no harm no foul, so I dunno how it came to light in the 1st place.
clbea
Claude B. 1
Hmmm! Air France decided (Sept. 24, 2012) to equiped the 4,100 pilots with iPad. But on the ground use.
suchet
suchet singh yadav 1
Why the cell phones are allowed inside the cockpit? If at all the cell phones may be hidden in side their brief cases but under no circumastances be allowed to be used while flying?
sparkie624
sparkie624 1
In the US they are not allowed too... But look in the mirror, do you ever do something that you are not supposed to do.... and hope you don't get caught.... They just got caught.
mhlansdell00
Mark Lansdell 1
Motor vehicle departments and state governments are beginning to understand that "distracted" driving is very much like DUI. There is no way to enforce the texting laws as passed since they allow using other cell phone functions like GPS. A cop can't tell the difference unless he sees your thumbs moving over the buttons.

It wasn't that long ago that any pilot viewed flying the airplane a his first and only responsibility. Not so today. We're well past the days of flying a DC-3 when the only distraction was cockpit clutter, and until we all get back to that state of mind an incident is a constant probability. In most cases there is a second head flying an airplane, but don't depend on that.
preacher1
preacher1 1
Unfortunately my friend, you are so correct. Sad part is, you would think that even a simple thing like the "STERILE COCKPIT RULE" would take care of such trash but apparently it gets shoved aside at times. That said, we only hear about the bad apples, and not the thousands of others that do it right everyday. It's stuff such as this that should make us all realize that there are reasons for such rules. Most are there because of something that happened in the past that didn't have a good ending.
mhlansdell00
Mark Lansdell 1
An old saying, "an idle mind is the devils workshop" applies here, I think. With not enough to do we will invent things to do. I can't think of a case where I couldn't wait to respond to a telephone or other contact. In today's world we find time to respond to phone, text even e mail messages at what turns out to be inappropriate times.
preacher1
preacher1 1
To read the story, this was a total distraction, a complete loss of situational awareness.
mhlansdell00
Mark Lansdell 1
I would say. He didn't even know what his altitude was, never mind the fact that he was supposed to be looking out of the windows if he was visual, but it didn't say. I doubt he could even hear the radio.
preacher1
preacher1 1
You made the comment here below about the Airbus being too automated. I guess he just thought autoland would take him to the ground and that would be it.lol Well, now it would have alotough a little rough.lol
mhlansdell00
Mark Lansdell 1
There's always something to bring you to ground. Gravity works. :-)
mhlansdell00
Mark Lansdell 1
You know Cap. I think up through my 40s I might have tried to get it all done. I don't think it was until I was about 45 that I realized the only thing that mattered was what I was doing and it had to be right. Cell phones were these huge things in cars and trucks that were displacing 2 way radios but were so expensive you thought about who you gave the number to. Now you can't find someone without a cell phone the size of a pack of Camels to their ear who you can ask a question of without a scowl. They're only paying half attention to their phone conversation and less to what they are doing with their hands and feet.What's worse, their supervisors expect the phone to be answered when they call. I was watching a school bus driver texting behind me the other day, praying she would see the light if it turned red and not drive through me. The cell phone feeds an 'it's good enough' attitude folks have today. There are special people I have mostly found in the transportation field who take special care and assume the huge responsibility of heavy metal movements, whether it's an 80,000 lb truck, a 50 passenger bus or a 200 passenger flying machine. Most of the "operators" do a good and responsible job.
preacher1
preacher1 1
That 2nd line is what so many youngsters are forgetting today, WHAT THEY ARE DOING RIGHT NOW. The attitude seems to be ambidextrous and bulletproof.Folks forget that driving or operating a vehichle of any kind is a task in itself and that it normally takes a fair amount of skill to get from point A to B rather than an afterthought. We could go on all day about such as this, but the cops see the results daily, which is why there is such an outcry against it. AND IT COULD WELL HAVE HAPPENED HERE, EVEN WITH 2 PEOPLE IN THE COCKPIT and a planeload of PAX.
mhlansdell00
Mark Lansdell 1
A firmed. The question now age old 'Why do they waste youth on the young ' springs to mind with you words and anecdotes. Younguns have seen themselves as bullet proof for centuries. It's probably a good thing sometimes, allowing them to take chances until they learn from experience. Problems start when a heavy piece of machinery gets added to the mix. I drove my share of racing cars, kept up with the best on the interstates and even rolled an airplane on departure many moons ago, but never with a phone stuck to my ear. Flying PAX reduced my turns to 3 minutes. There was always someone on board who was nervous about flying. And I was never so good and mistake free that I could afford a distraction like a computer game or a phone call that could wait 20 minutes. But then I never was flown by an airplane until recently either. Auto pilot was something quite different, little more than wing leveling and altitude control.
preacher1
preacher1 1
They call it progress.lol
mhlansdell00
Mark Lansdell 1
So this is progress :-)
dg1941
dg1941 1
The thing about it is, I always see the cops picking people up for texting and driving... where is the FAA when you need them.
mhlansdell00
Mark Lansdell 1
They won't give um police planes with little blue lights.
andytyler
Andy Tyler -1
Jetstar...landing in Singapore. FAA doesn't apply to non-american airlines in foreign countries, or did you not read the article?
dg1941
dg1941 0
I skimmed it , but FAA was meant was implying any national air authority.
krahmerica
krahmerica 1
Who did he call...the First Officer?
rick737
richard weiss 1
This so called captain has more important things to do. So I would suggest his company give him plenty of time to do so.
preacher1
preacher1 1
Too bad there is no followup article to see what did happen. But, as they did not crash and just took a go round, nobody may have known until well after the fact. At any rate, either so much for CRM or you had a total dummy for an FO
jmedina94
Julian Medina 1
jmedina94
Julian Medina 1
Nvm. Guess he wasn't texting but it is still pretty bad.
n53265
Jack Whetten 0
How does he forget LANDING GEAR? That's a life or death matter. Yu cant do that
THRUSTT
THRUSTT 1
It's easily forgetton when distracted and not following sop's...
mhlansdell00
Mark Lansdell 1
Jack,
You can't read a landing check list when you're invol;ved with a cell phone or tablet. That's how you forget all kinds of things. Don't forget, the cap'n never set minimums which is what got the FOs attention.
andytyler
Andy Tyler -1
this is why i dont trust foreign pilots
THRUSTT
THRUSTT 1
But you probably trust local pilots stalling Q400's and cruising on Cicero in 737's, right???
AccessAir
AccessAir 0
Wow, using a cellphone/electronic device below 10,000 feet. You would think that it would interfere with navigational equipment!!! I guess all these years the airlines have been lying to us....
andytyler
Andy Tyler 3
no the main reason is because they dont want flying projectiles (i.e. cell phones/heavy laptops/gameboys/PDAs) to kill or injure someone in the case of extreme landing/turbulence/younameit.
sstuff
sstuff 2
Turning off a cell ’phone (or similar), prevents it becoming a flying projectile?
andytyler
Andy Tyler 1
putting it away does. I think 25% of cell phones are left on in flight on any given commercial flight.
sparkie624
sparkie624 0
Sounds like a major goof.... Sometimes there are times when the greatest emergency coming in on your phone can wait a few more minutes....
haydenlamb747400
Hayden Lamb 0
dg1941
dg1941 -2
And to think that Virgin was talking about putting cell phone service on their planes for transatlantic flights.
andytyler
Andy Tyler -1
This is such an old story. Happened years ago, in 2010 i believe. The article itself is from April too. Yawn.
SootBox
SootBox -2
God doesn't have a cell phone so it would be useless after the crash.
sparkie624
sparkie624 0

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