Now reported that the CVR and FDR have been recovered so there should be some preliminary findings fairly soon. The CVR should be quite interesting as it will reveal the crew awareness of the situation, was the F/O shouting at the Captain to go-around or sitting there afraid to speak up ?
The ATC recording suggests that the controller was aware of the excess height and was vectoring them around for another approach to give them time to descend. An approach controller handles more arrivals then a pilot does and usually just into one airport, so he would have been well aware of what position an aircraft should be in at a particular point. He sounded a bit surprised at the Captain but accepted the decision to continue with the approach.
It would be reasonable to assume that the ATC equipment in Pakistan isn’t state of the art but now we are opening up another issue. The Captain is the final authority as to the operation of the aircraft however any Captain in a western airline who ignores legitimate input from the F/O on safety matters is putting his head on the block. Ignoring an F/Os call to go around from an unstable approach will be taken very seriously and likely result in anything from a CRM course to termination.
Whilst a controller isn’t a pilot and can’t be expected to know stabilised criteria for every type of aircraft and airline, the issue of permitting an approach which is obviously so far out of tolerance that a safe landing is in doubt comes into question.
Perhaps there should be a “gate” that an aircraft has to be able to pass through unless a “MAYDAY” has been declared. It shouldn’t be necessary but it would add another layer in the “Swiss cheese model”