[ploum]

I read a story about the "landing gear down" button being close and similar to the "shut off all engines" button in some bombers during WW2.

A few of them crashed after very long flights, on approach of the runway. Inexplicably, they suddenly felt right when they should have deployed landing gears.

So aircraft makers learned from that incident that no amount of training can mitigate a bad user interface. Especially if the user of your interface is dead tired after a 12h flight.

[vermilingua]

That was the "flaps down" switch, not "shut off engines". The key feature of fixed-wing aircraft is being able to glide unpowered; dropping the flaps however would be equivalent to yanking the yoke all the way forward.

[wkat4242]

But during a landing you would normally have the flaps down, this is exactly what they're for: to enable lower approach speeds and more visibility of the runway due to a nose down angle

[shakow]

Flaps must be deployed progressively. If you suddenly put 35° deflection flaps instead of lowering your gear, you're in for a strong emotional event.