Originally Posted by
portmanteau
Please people, the idea that any airline pilot can confuse 02 and 20 runways is just not credible. From that transcript it seems to me that the crew were clear they were headed for 02 but several untimely references to 20, 02 and finally "02 or 20" by ATC left the crew struggling to keep up with a constantly changing runway situation. I think this played a significant part in this accident.
listen to the tape yourself and look at the altitude profile.
they made several approaches it seems without ever announcing a go-around to atc or it's not caught on the public recording (covering multiple frequencies)
so ATC was most likely confused by them flying strange patterns around the runway making it unclear where they will land.
maybe they were planning 20 all the time and just almost went into the ground somewhere else what do i know we will see i guess.