Bear in mind this was from 2008 and there have been many advances in the technical and HP&L arenas since then.
There you are on short finals as captain and PM and you see a massive (>1,000 according to the report) flock of birds. After you’ve made the decision to avoid them, communicated it to the PF (who hasn’t seen them), the PF has overcome his startle reaction and commenced a GA, you fly into it. Shortly after, both engines suffer severe damage making a descent and landing the only option.
This is an unpleasant situation to be in, not least because of the multiple reversals of intent over a short timescale: first landing, then GA, then forced landing. Coordinating something like that is a tricky CRM problem which doesn’t get practiced much, if at all, so it is no surprise that it went a bit pear shaped. That said, the aircraft got a bit bent but everyone inside lived, which for a double engine failure could be said to be a good result.
Yes, you could argue that there might have been a better result if the captain (or FO, had he been PM in a similar situation) had immediately taken control and gone around, then informed the other pilot why but guidance on bird encounters only came out *after* this event.
The accident was severe enough to trigger thorough investigation from all angles, leading to improved/new procedures and training but not so severe as to seriously injure or kill anyone. One might actually call that progress.
Pity - that crew hadn't read it.
Pity the crew hadn’t read the accident report before the accident, either...