There are two serious safety issues here:
First, the appalling safety culture shown by this operator’s management in the way in which they punished the crew without apparent identifying or fixing the root cause of the problem. Following on from safetypee’s quote, then ‘if your investigation concludes that crew error is the cause then start again, because there is always something else behind crew error’. Also another quote from James Reason, “Don’t swat the mosquitoes – drain the swamp”
Second, the warning signs from this incident - "have been several previous instances" "almost happened a couple of times earlier today" and apparently many other similar incidents in our industry. This is a particularly worrying trend (if it is increasing or just improved reporting), in that many of the aircraft involved (world-wide) have databases, and map displays showing airports and beacons. Why then are crews loosing positional awareness when the aircraft are better equipped to show location? Complacency, lacking discipline, inappropriate training, and it’s not just the captain who is making the mistake, it is the crew. Many of these aspects are very similar to the precursors of the spate of CFIT accidents several years ago. Thankfully, for CFIT we now have EGPWS, but until we get RAAS that has the capability to announce or question the runway that the aircraft is lined up with, we may have to face many more embarrassing incidents and increased risks from runway incursion or airborne collision.
con-pilot Visual approaches – “it's about movements per hour, shaving off flight hours, saving that 0.5t of fuel”; so why do the large US airports get all snarled up when the weather goes IFR? Reduced movements, delay, fuel burnt on the ground, etc.
Your 21,000hs? The last two fatal accidents that I investigated both captains had over 19,000 hrs, didn’t do them much good either. However, during my career with very much less flying time than yours, I have probably made more mistakes.