The Eastern Airlines flight was heading to Miami International Airport at night to land. The pilots on-board lowered the landing gear as they prepared to land. One of the officers noticed that the landing gear indicator had not lit. This indicator shows that the nose gear has been lowered and is locked for landing. The pilots repeatedly rotated the landing gear, but the confirmation light failed to illuminate. One of the officers radioed the control tower and informed them of the landing gear problem. They requested to discontinue their approach as they sorted the issue. The approach controller allowed them to enter a holding pattern, and the plane ascended to 2000 feet. After the plane achieved an altitude of 2000 feet, the Captain instructed one of the officers to put the plane on autopilot. One of the officers was dispatched and directed to avionics bay to confirm if the alighting gear had been lowered. The plane maintained the altitude for a while, but it began to descend slowly that the crew could not notice. The altitude warning chime sounded, but the cockpit crew was so preoccupied with sorting the landing gear problem that none of them could hear it. The plane's engineer did not hear it since he was below the deck checking the landing gear. When one of the pilots decided to turn the plane another 180°, he noticed that the altitude had drastically decreased. He asked the other crew members if they had changed the altitude, but it was too late; the plane crashed into the Florida Everglades.
The crew's fixation on the nose gear problem led to an error that created a disaster. First, the crew did not realize that autopilot mode had been turned off. Second, the engineer had been dispatched to check the landing gear, so he was not in his seat when the altitude alert sounded. The other crew members did not hear it either because they had prioritized the nose gear. The preoccupation of all crew members with one problem made them distracted, and they did not monitor instruments at their stations (National Transportation Safety Board, 1972) .
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According to an investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the indicator connected to the alighting gear failed to illuminate because of the initial removal of the build and incorrect reinstallation. Also, the board found out that the autopilot mode had been unknowingly switched from altitude hold to control wheel steering (NTSB, 1972) . Based on the video, one of the pilots might have leaned on the yoke after the autopilot mode was turned off to speak to another crew member. The pressure exerted on the yoke would have led to a slight descent that was unnoticeable by the crew ( Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 , 2009).
Several lessons can be learned from this accident. First, it shows the importance of the division of labor. If each crew member had focused on their workstation, the problem would have been sorted by the engineer since the nose gear could be lowered manually. NTSB's report showed that the crew in attendance payed attention to the distraction for about four minutes. At this time, little regard was given to other flight elements. Secondly, it shows the importance of crew resource management. Through this knowledge, the crew members would have efficiently tackled the problem causing fewer distractions. Thirdly, it shows the importance of thorough routine checks of aircraft systems before any flight. A thorough check would have identified the nose-gear indicator malfunction. Fourth, the Captain should ensure that at least one of the pilots is monitoring the plane's progress at all times in aspects such as speed, altitude, and pitch (O'Brien & Bull Schaefer, 2020) . One of NTSB's recommendations stated that flight crew should get notification assistance when their altitudes are questionable.
References
AIRBOYD. (2009). Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 [Video].
National Transportation Safety Board. (1972). Aircraft Accident Report- Eastern Air Lines, Inc. L-1011, N310EA . Washington D.D: National Transportation Safety Board.
O'Brien, J., & Bull Schaefer, R. (2020). Deadly distraction – Eastern Air 401: the accident that changed aviation forever. The CASE Journal , 16 (3), 345-368. doi: 10.1108/tcj-10-2019-0095
