Parkfell :
I am not familiar with Karachi airport or their ATC set up. Perhaps someone can clarify a few points.
Neither am I , but I have visited numerous TWRs around the world and set up and procedures are relatively standard .
attempting answers :
1- do not know, but if there is one it is likely a PC monitor replicated the TMA setting . But it is not there for monitoring APP but to verify position of traffic (e.g. VFR , etc..) many TWR controllers are not trained/qualified radar .
2. must be very unusual situation to do so. What we saw here would not be such a case in my opinion , since the aircraft rejoined the Glide at some point and declared he was "comfortable" withe the APP.
3. It is in the vast majority of cases impossible to verify gear from the TWR , too far away and anyway it is not part of his duties at all. In some modern new High TWRs ( like BKK for instance) the TWR is so high that an aircraft even on the runway looks like ant, a 1-2 mm spot..In addition he angle often prevent to see the gear on app..if you look from above. And you also need perfect visibility , which is often not the case due pollution or wx.
4- TWR Binoculars are not made and used for that , they are used to spot vehicles or persons near runways , or in case of emergency . The fist APP did not require this. Plus see point 3 above.
All questions which I am sure the final report will cover and explain.
I doubt this since the TWR ATC had no influence on this accident .
Within a year would be useful, otherwise we will have moved onto the next major nasty, and the lessons to be learnt will start to fade away?
Which lessons in this case ? Go around if not stabilized by 1000 or 500 ft ? already there. but to be cynical , it does not matter which recommendations comes out of any report , they all fade away . I was a bit involved in Teneriffe, lots of good recommendations came out at the time ,but it took a few years to implement the " line up and wait " phraseology , and even then our US friends did not like it and it took decades to convince them ... Learning from others mistakes and implementing changes is one of the most difficult things in aviation ...