Qantas pilots forgot to lower landing gear

Shane McLeod for AM, ABC November 4, 2009, 9:10 am

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An air safety investigation has been launched after a Qantas jet made its approach to land at the nation's busiest airport without deploying its landing gear.

The pilots apparently noticed their oversight less than 300 metres above the ground.

The airline has stood down the two pilots pending the safety investigation.

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The Qantas 767 was on a morning flight from Melbourne as it came in to land at Sydney airport last Monday.

Once the error was realised, the pilots returned power to the engines and regained altitude, before circling and successfully landing.

But how they came so close to trying to land their jet without being ready to do so is now the subject of a serious incident investigation by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau.

Qantas has released a statement, agreeing it was a serious incident.

"This is an extremely rare event but one we have taken seriously," the statement said.

"The flight crew knew all required procedures but there was a brief communications breakdown. They responded quickly to the situation and instigated a go-around. The cockpit alert coincided with their actions."

The cockpit alert was an audible warning from the ground proximity warning system.

The airline says there was no issue of flight safety and it is fully cooperating with the investigation.

The president of the Australian and International Pilots Association that represents Qantas flight crew, Captain Barry Jackson, says coming in to land is when pilots are at their busiest.

"You're dealing with air traffic, you're dealing with slowing the aircraft down, configuration changes, changing frequencies, all those things," he said.

Mr Jackson says pilots welcome the investigation, to work out what went wrong and how to avoid similar problems happening again.

"It's very serious if the enhanced warning system is activated," he said.

"It's designed to go off when an aircraft is close to the ground and it's not configured for landing, it's designed for that. And so therefore it's done its job.

"I can't comment on the detail. The pilots have been stood down while an investigation takes place, the proper investigation process will take place, will find out the facts, then we'll start to ask the questions how the pilots got there and obviously deal with that as it comes up."

Mr Jackson says it is hard to speculate on the key areas the investigation will need to focus on.

"I believe the go-around was attempted a little bit higher than the altitude that the warning went off," he said.

"I don't know if they actually started to climb straight away because usually when you do a go-around you select the go-around switches. The aeroplane will climb rapidly and if for some reason it's continued to a lower altitude before it's gone around and that warning has been set off."

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Tony 04:29am Thursday 05th November 2009 EST Report Abuse
Australian air commuters should choose carefully when they travel,Quantas and other airline companies should be made more accountable for the frequent delays which translate to loss of productivityThe air safety authorities should make public an impartial safety ( or lack of it ) scale according to ...
kristy79s 02:06am Thursday 05th November 2009 EST Report Abuse
dumb comment or dumb response??? there is no way that human error can be reduced to zero. i challenge anyone to find a system that is foolproof, human or otherwise. and i'm pretty sure the paramedic scenario would have occured at least once if not many times... its called human error
rosalie 01:06am Thursday 05th November 2009 EST Report Abuse
andy u dumb ass...a 'human error could have cost many people their lives tere is no room for human error when flying a plane" that would be like a paramedic attending a cardiac arrest call out only to try and defib them then remembering oops i forgot to charge teh batteries...small ...
John 11:51pm Wednesday 04th November 2009 EST Report Abuse
...& said "what, we missed the runway?" I don't think the passengers realised what occurred. When I read the news, I now know what happened there.
Andy 11:38pm Wednesday 04th November 2009 EST Report Abuse
whats the big deal? a procedure failed to be executed due to human error, (so sack them to keep the standards high) the backup system in place worked and saved the day? so what..
John 11:29pm Wednesday 04th November 2009 EST Report Abuse
Melbourne to Sydney last Monday morning? I think I was on that flight. The pilot already said "cabin crew, prepare for landing." The engine was quiet and the plane was descending. Then the plane pulled up and the engine roared again. A man two seats away joked to his companion & ...
kristy79s 09:17pm Wednesday 04th November 2009 EST Report Abuse
no matter how highly trained and skilled a pilot, there is always the chance of human error, and that is where the warning system came in (though even they can fail too). if you translated the number of vehicle crashes, near misses and fatalities to airline travel you would see just how safe plane ...
Isaac 09:13pm Wednesday 04th November 2009 EST Report Abuse
id put money on them to never forget again! i hope they keep their jobs.
Isaac 09:12pm Wednesday 04th November 2009 EST Report Abuse
i'd put money on them never to forget again. i hope they keep their jobs.
Chiu-Suen 09:12pm Wednesday 04th November 2009 EST Report Abuse
Qantas have more than a few narrow mishaps in recent months! What's wrong with their engineers and pilots? Please don't spoil the safety reputation of such a fine airline! I'll move to Singapore Airline soon. Li.:Disappointed customer of Qantas for the last 50 years.