Last Call

What: Chart Air flight en route from Ngukurr to Katherine
Where: Katherine, Australia
When: March 29, 2011
Why: When the plane’s landing gear did not work properly, the plane circled the airport for 45 minutes. Passengers were “advised to call their loved ones.

Maybe the pilot was young or inexperienced. I don’t know. I do know that it is not all that rare for planes to have landing gear problems. Usually it is something that is handled fairly easily. Usually they foam the runway to prevent a fire, and the plane lands on its belly, usually after flying by the control tower to get visual confirmation on the status of the landing gear.

I’m not sure what I think about telling passengers to make that phone call. That pilot might have caused some unnecessary panic. There will probably be some negative consequences for some of these people who experienced flying on the plane and having the pilot practically promise them their goose was cooked and they were going to die.

Is this Chart Air protocol I wonder? In my opinion, however well-meant it is, it is not particularly a good thing for a pilot to induce panic and terror into one’s passengers.