What if the tower guy said that the gear appeared to be down? Would you just ignore the cockpit indications on the gear lights and EICAS and try to land normally? If they tell you that the gear is not extended, then they are not telling you anything you don't know from cockpit indications. What the tower sees is completely irrelevant as far as the Boeing checklists go and can only create confusion so the flyby is pointless.
Trust the unsafe gear warnings, attempt the emergency gear extension and if unsuccessful carry out the partial or all gear up landing checklist and land. I'm sure that this is what they ultimately did but the flybys just slowed the process down.
Last edited by Fair_Weather_Flyer; 22nd Aug 2020 at 20:04.