An accident report has recently revealed that a pilot who crashed in an outback landing strip in early September was probably distracted by emus.
No one was injured in the eight-seater Cessna 441, despite the pilot forgetting to engage the plane’s landing gear because he had spotted the emus on the runway. This was the pilot’s third trip of the day between Adelaide and the Honeymoon mine area in the far south of Australia.
Usually a warning bell goes off to alert the pilot of the failure. However, the report shows that the sound did not go off.
Research from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau reveals that 13% of accidents between 1997 and 2004 were a result of the pilot getting distracted during the landing phase of the flight. The bureau has urged pilots to be aware of distractions at this critical point.
