Crew members aboard a Continental Airlines jet were so distracted by cockpit signals warning them of nearby aircraft that they forgot to lower the wheels for landing, investigators say.
The Boeing 727 with 88 people aboard scraped its belly on the runway Monday at O'Hare Airport as it aborted the landing attempt on instructions from the control tower. It landed safely on a second attempt.With their attention on the warning signals, the three cockpit crew members didn't use the landing checklist that would have warned them that the wheels weren't down, National Transportation Safety Board investigators said Thursday.
Using the checklist is mandatory, said Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Tanya Christopherson.
An alarm went off to signal that the plane was flying below 500 feet with its wheels up, the NTSB. But the crew still did not realize the problem, the agency said.
Continental spokesman Ned Walker said that the report was too preliminary to comment on.