A new aviation report attributes a string of takeoff incidents and accidents in Australia and overseas to simple data entry errors.
The Australian Transport Safety Bureau says 31 incidents in the past 20 years could be put down to typos or miscalculations, the ABC reports.
They include a 2004 cargo flight from Canada for which the wrong take-off weight was entered into the flight computer.
The plane struggled to take off, then hit an embankment and burst into flames. Seven crew members were killed.
Other mistakes include taking the wrong information from a laptop computer and mishearing a radio message.
The bureau notes, however, that data entry problems make up only a small proportion of all aircraft incidents.
