Ooops....
The flight crew of an El Al 737 'forgot' to deploy the plane's landing gear on an approach to London's Heathrow Airport on Tuesday. Fortunately, when they hit 800 feet above ground level an alarm went off.
The pilots were supposed to deploy the landing gear about six miles before reaching their destination, according to the report, and conduct tests to make sure the wheels would fully deploy.
But the checks were allegedly not made before attempting to land - in an incident that almost ended in tragedy.
About 800 feet above the landing strip, landing gear alarms began sounding in the cockpit - alerting the pilots to their mistake. They quickly performed a go-around to drop the landing gear; passengers were not notified of the mistake.
El Al responded to the report Tuesday. "The incident is under investigation, in coordination with the Chief Air Crash Investigator of the Ministry of Transport," it said in a statement.I don't know how many of the passengers will figure out that this was their flight. Circling London is routine. Doing a pass, coming down that low and not landing is not routine. El Al had five flights to London on Tuesday (many Israelis save money by flying overseas on the second holiday day - which is still a holiday abroad - and then if they are religious, waiting in the airport until the holiday ends at their destination). At least one of them was a 747, so it wasn't that flight. I have no idea which of the other flights is the one under discussion.
I have no idea how often flight crews 'forget' to deploy their landing gear, but thank God I am not aware of it having happened on any flight I have flown.
Maybe they were too busy eating cholent?
Labels: El Al, London Heathrow Airport
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:28 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home