Originally Posted by
AfricanSkies
These pilots were either drunk, or;
This flying culture is so ingrained at PIA that both of them were completely comfortable with it (as they actually stated), and had got away with such behaviour on a regular basis in the past. From which you can probably deduce that other pilots at PIA behave in a similar fashion, on a regular basis.
Exactly. Everything about this extraordinary performance defies logic, reason and common sense. It was a deviation so far from normal it had to be deliberate, and almost certainly agreed to or at least uncontested by the pilot not flying. Whatever the intent, this otherwise perfectly airworthy airplane ended up where it did because two competent, experienced pilots put it there.