This is an interim report and as has been pointed out there are a few other distractions going on right now. But you can get a pretty good feel for things that might have played a factor in what was a serious loss of situational awareness. As ATC Watcher says they had a medical emergency and the controllers were trying to be helpful by shortening their track miles. On the other hand why anyone should be surprised that they might have additional pilots for a thirteen hour flight ending in a period of circadian low has not really thought things through. The pilot flying was pretty experienced for what is a new aircraft type, but with 1500 hours on the aircraft he probably still had relatively few landings most of them ending in a sedate ILS. The captain had 400 hours on type so even less experience. Things got out of hand in a fairly short period of time. The aircraft was vectored very high and the co-pilot flying by hand allowed a high rate of descent to build and take him well below the glide. I would not be at all surprised if magenta line / flight director issues added to the confusion. The captain only called the tower as they went around so was obviously busy with other things. For the tabloids they were seconds from crashing. A more balanced view was that the crew performed poorly and were saved by an aircraft where in this case the warnings worked and you can pull full back stick and get out of a whole heap of trouble.
Last edited by lederhosen; 29th Mar 2020 at 12:01.