Jetstar continues to break the tedium of flying with dramatic safety incidents. The latest, on July 21, has been uncovered by Aviation Business in its online news service to industry insiders.

A Jetstar A320 from Christchurch made two attempts to land at Melbourne Airport in dense fog before diverting to Avalon.

And while Jetstar described it to Crikey as “a benign event”, it says that after taking a second look at the data it is retraining the captain involved.

It appears that after the pilot in command decided to abandon the approach because of poor visibility the jet continued to descend until it was 20 feet above the runway before it began to climb away for another landing attempt.

As it did so the crew heard an audible warning that the aircraft was incorrectly configured for the speed and rate of climb at which it was being flown, but this ceased as they then positioned the jet for the second landing attempt, which was also abandoned, after which the jet made the short flight to a fog free Avalon airport.

The A320 had sufficient fuel for one missed approach to Avalon followed by a diversion to its pre-planned alternative airport at Hobart.

A spokesman for Jetstar, Simon Westaway, denied reports circulating in the airline game that the wheels had not been lowered when the pilot decided to abandon the first approach, and remained up when the jet sank far too close to the ground before making the second attempt at landing at its intended destination.