Originally Posted by
patrickal
It just does not seem possible that they could have made so many bad decisions along the way without realizing they were getting deeper and deeper into trouble and taking some corrective action. The fact that, as ferry pilot stated, they made so many deliberate actions that were all wrong begs for a better explanation other than they thought they could get away with it.
The report doesn't use the words, but it has been characterized as saying the captain was over confident, it does not mention anything such as slurred or hesitant speech, incoherence or unresponsiveness. They have much more information than we do, I think they would have at least hinted if incapacitation was a subject of interest.
Over-confidence can arise from a well known phenomenon called "normalization of deviance". There is no need to invoke fumes, medical issues or anything else. The fact is, healthy, alert, fully aware people will occasionally do very stupid things. Bear in mind this type of accident is very rare, we are talking one in billions of flights.
The risks of continuing an unstable approach are also well known, and better emphasis of that will surely be the focus of any recommendations.