The timing of events on finals was a bit out but would only have been noticed by jet transport flight crew.
I thought the FE was quite convincing - i.e. when asked a question he had to alter his train of thought and didn't produce the punchy macho reply so beloved of Propagandawood.
In all of my operations (3 companies flying B747) the FO would normally have been given the aircraft to fly whilst the captain and Flight Engineer dealt with the problems.
Having done this one in the sim (Thanks a lot, Don!
) the crew did very well to control the aircraft and get it safely on the ground - respect!
Ref sim exercise; it was one of the few occasions when my pulse rate shot up and I wasn't sure if we were going to make it or not.
The parents of one of those killed are much to be admired for their courageous and dogged pursuit of the truth, esp nicking a couple of boxes of undisclosed NTSB docs from a press conference
