Air traffic safety investigators are examining claims that a Jetstar pilot had to abort a landing because he had been sending a text message from his mobile phone. The details of the incident are unclear, but the A321-200 was just 122 meters off the deck at Changi Airport in Singapore, when on board computers alerted both pilots that the aircrafts landing gear had either failed to deploy or had not been instructed to deploy.
The aircraft and all 167 passengers landed safely on the second attempt. There has so far been no comment over the incident from Jetstar, the budget arm of Qantas Airways. Although the Australia Transport Safety Bureau is not saying anything about whether or not the pilot was using his phone as the aircraft was coming in to land, director Ian Sangston did say that the Airbus was getting a little too close to the ground for comfort when the pilots made the decision to pull up.
The incident took place on May 27 as the Jetstar service was completing its flight to Singapore from Darwin.
In 2007 a Jetstar aircraft was forced to abort a landing as it came in to Melbourne Airport on July 21. The Airbus A320 got into trouble after pilots became confused by cockpit alarms after failing to complete a go-around procedure correctly.
Safety investigators claim that pilots had not pushed the thrust lever into the right position and that this led the onboard computer to believe that it was still being asked to land, hence the alarms. The pilots aborted the landing 11 metres from the ground.