Weight data for a plane carrying more than 100 people was incorrectly entered into the flight computer system, causing two botched landing attempts at Kalgoorlie Airport in Western Australia, a report says.
The error meant the plane's weight was calculated to be nearly 9.5 tonnes lighter, the Australian Transport Safety Bureau report released on Friday says.
It meant the settings for landing angle and speed were wrong, which twice activated the stickshaker, warning of an aerodynamic stall, before the plane landed safely on the third attempt.
An aerodynamic stall indicates that a plane is in danger of falling from the sky.
"The error went unnoticed and did not manifest as an operational problem until the approach into Kalgoorlie," the report says.
The incident happened on a Boeing 717 flight from Perth, operated by Cobham Aviation Services Australia, on October 13, 2010.
On board were 97 passengers, three cabin crew and two flight crew.
Investigators said there were several organisational issues that had the potential to affect the safety of future operations.
"Those issues related to the format of the aircraft load sheet, the verification check by the flight crew of the take-off weight against the load sheet and the lack of an independent validation check of the flight management system (FMS) generated landing weight," the report says.
"In response, the operator has made a number of enhancements to the format of the 717 load sheet, the FMS weight data entry and verification procedures, the weight validation checks and the 717 simulator training in respect of recovery from stickshaker activation."
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