Like many before, this incident required crew judgment; in the circumstances neither crew or ATC should be criticised. We can all learn from such incidents, both from the good and not so good aspects, but until the report is published, we should not speculate on the details.
However, the more general issues and debate so far have yet again identified misconceptions and the human need to put things in neat boxes.
Nickctaylor, you either do not understand or have very poor knowledge of the certification processes that maintains such a high standard of safety in our industry. An aircraft (including landing gear) is stressed for a 10 ft/sec landing at MLW – in some circumstances equivalent to an unflared landing. For an overweight landing, the limit is 6 ft/sec; a landing at this rate would spill your G&T and most pilots would report this as a very heavy landing in normal operations. Piloting standards are more than adequate to land an aircraft well within these limits. In exception for those very rare occasions that are often weather related, then the ultimate design limit of the structure has even more safety margin.
Burst tyres do not cause fires; usually a heavy weight (high energy) landing will cause the tyre safety system to deflate them. The graphic pictures from flight test high-energy landings are limiting cases and the test requirements specify a 5 min “burn” without intervention.
Fuel tanks do not rupture during heavy weight landings; and as for partially empty tanks, thankfully most aircraft make all landings in that condition.
If the industry has learned the technical lessons from the SR111 accident then we will not see another one; this is not to say that crews will not be faced with similar circumstances requiring quick thinking and a decision on a course of action. Generally, most operators have focussed on the requirement to land quickly and not spend time trouble shooting; if a crew undertakes this we can ask little more of them.
A discrete frequency; why should we expect (demand) such a service? Good for LHR or any other ATC if they can provide it, but don’t rely on it because in most parts of the world it is not available, be thankful for a runway and a controller with basic skills.