But this wasn't the early days of commercial transport - this was 2013 after many decades of operation in the N Sea and elsewhere and pretty much all the lessons should have been learned by then.
HC, ISTR that you were a senior trainer - I don't know with which company - so why do you think two pilots made such glaring, yet BASIC, errors on a simple instrument approach? And if you were aware of similar shortcomings, what did you do about it?
You have said they had adequate training and checks so what was the problem? A cultural issue perhaps? Pilots regarding themselves as superior because of the salaries they were able to demand?
If you discount mechanical failure, disorientation, fatigue or major distraction you are left with a crew underperforming for no reason unless they were complacent or there was a major personality clash in the cockpit.
A supposedly competent and capable crew flew into the water because they didn't do their job properly - only someone who can't stand to hear the truth would fail to see that. You can't fix the problem unless you acknowledge there is one.
Olster - I have made many mistakes and put my hand up when I did so. I have also attended too many flight safety courses where accidents like this are dissected and discussed in order to determine why crews make such mistakes - there are often linked events (the holes in the Swiss cheese) that combine to create an unfortunate scenario that encourages human errors - I don't see any in this case except the failure to follow basic procedures.
As much as HC bangs on about finding the reasons for the accident - neither the AAIB or the Inquiry have found anything except pilot error - sometimes the blame really does lie with the pilots.