The pilot of the Jetstar JQ57 flight to Singapore forgot the standard procedure of activating the landing gear because he was playing on his phone.
This piloting error could have killed the 220 passengers on his plane.
The distracted pilot, who has 13,000 hours of flying experience, started fiddling with his phone when the plane hit an altitude of 2,000-2,500 feet.
The plane’s co-pilot felt something was off at 1,000 feet, but failed to notice the gross mistake by the pilot, despite his 4,000 hours of flying experience.
At 720 feet, a cockpit alert told the pilots the wheels had not been lowered.
Soon after the captain attempted to put down the gear at 650 feet, another alarm sounded, this time signalling that the plane had dipped below 500 feet.
At a small window of 392 feet, it was too dangerous to proceed with landing.
The incident happened in 2010, according to an Australian Transport Safety Bureau report. The plane had taken off from Darwin in Australia.
The captain was distracted by incoming text messages on his mobile phone, the report said.
He told investigators he was trying to unlock the phone to turn it off, after having forgotten to do so before take-off.
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