There appears to be a complete lack of any credible information on the first landing attempt:
- Why pilots were too high at this distance?
- Did Pilots announce any problem onboard (landing gear or otherwise)?
Surely, if there was a serious problem, ATC would have been informed and emergency services would be at the runway. Given the number of people that work in an airport, this would have leaked within minutes to media if not even prior to touchdown. Survivor says nobody knew about anything onboard which suggests there was no problem serious enough to let passengers know or brace for landing. Passengers first clue was when the plane "jolted 3 times", possibly engines scraping the runway incident, before taking off again. Pilots again announced to passengers that they are coming in for another landing (again no emergency, brace, evacuation procedure). ATC certainly mentions belly landing but it could be because they saw the first attempt.