ATC Spotting the Gear Down Or Not
Several comments have been along the lines of ATC could have seen and warned the crew they were about to land with the gear up. Leaving aside culture aspects or ATC responsibilities, surely I can’t have been the only one to have sat at the holding point, looking at the aircraft on final approach, and not being able to see the gear (or some of it) because of angles and aircraft configuration? Is it not possible that the tower controller couldn’t see the gear but dismissed it as an optical allusion (particularly if, as someone a few posts back mentioned, there is haze, shimmering from the heat etc).