Some interesting comments here. first of all, credit where credit is due; congratulations Ralph the Bong, beautifully said!
Let's take the givens out of the equation, the chief one being that two politicians were on board, so any opportunity to get their mugs on TV would be gleefully accepted. Secondly, the standard of journalism involved has been correctly mocked by everybody here; it will ever be thus I'm afraid.
Now as to the question of landing clearances, yes, we have different standards to the US, and I don't claim to know the finer points of their system. If it doesn't take into account the situation that Ausatco described, then forget it, but I find it hard to believe that given the extremes of weather they have over there this isn't taken into account in their regulations? Lots more knowledgeable people around than I on this one.
But in a CAVOK situation where an RPT jet is aware of all tower conversations, watches a departing aircraft get airborne, knows that no other aircraft has been cleared to enter the runway, has a full view of the runway ahead and suddenly can't get a word in, I find it extremely difficult to accept Amos2's view that the pilot's licence would be at risk by landing without a clearance. The final decision is the pilot's if safety is concerned; yes, you are only cleared to the runway threshold if a landing clearance is not issued, but any pilot who couldn't successfully argue that in those conditions landing was safer than going around would not be worth his chops, and most tower controllers would agree.
Direct Anywhere, your argument accepts as a given that every rule is set in stone, no ifs buts or maybes. Sorry, as a twenty year tower controller I just don't agree. That may apply in enroute control where everything is done by the book, but tower controllers all over the world will tell you that without commonsense aviation would come to a grinding halt.
Let's forget the furphy of the soccer watching going on, this is a situation that just happens every now and then, especially in procedural towers where more airspace and more talking is involved. Standard procedure as every pilot and controller knows is for the pilot to land then call short final and get a landing clearance. Commonsense must be allowed to prevail in certain circumstances.
And EVERYBODY on this forum should be emailing the editor of the Sunday Mail and telling him what a disgrace to journalism both he and the journalist concerned are. Err, send him the link to this thread too.