Flight International 5-11 May 2020 published a synopsis of the close call to a NEOS Boeing 737-800 at Bristol in June 2019.. Report here:
https://assets.publishing.service.go...NEOT_05-20.pdf
Yet another instance where blind following of flight director guidance during the process of an unstable approach led to a very close call. Flight Directors were initially designed to be an aid to instrument flying but it didn't take long for these instruments to become indispensable to some pilots even in good weather. Like moths to a flame is one apt description.
As David Davies the chief test pilot of the British Air Registration Board in 1949 wrote in his fine book Handling the Big Jets, "Finally do not become lazy in your professional lives. The autopilot is a great comfort, so are the flight director and approach coupler But do not get into the position where you need these devices to complete a flight."
Today we have rules which dictate when these devices are needed to start or complete a flight. Even so, blind following of flight director guidance without concomitant cross-checking of other flight path parameters as a matter of common sense, is not good airmanship.
Company SOP's that mandate use of the flight director at all times including visual approaches, eventually leads to pilot automation dependency. We see the inevitable result in so many accidents. The NEOS 737 flight director debacle at Bristol was nearly an accident rather than an incident.