To revert to that moment of the lights going out. I seriously doubt that there was a tiredness factor at that moment. There have been moments going into that same ****** field a generation ago, that had me running on a raised adrenalin / blood ratio; if I had been tired after five nights in a row and a double Gerona to round it off, this situation would have had me fully awake long before that critical moment.
I can truly understand that moment of shock, but sometimes the only way out of a situation like this is to take the a/c by the b***s...the problem is, that it's something that modern pilots get little chance to practice. I'm not alone in thinking this, as later editions of ‘Handling the big jets' end with an almost impassioned comment from the revered writer on this issue. No, you can't take hundreds of million dollars worth of aircraft and throw it around like a DC3, this level of handling comes from years of picking up experience in small, often frightening lumps, so perhaps the decision to change the PF is not all that far off. But this is thread slippage, and really, it's that last dive at the probable position of the runway that is the issue. If it was intentional, was it appropriate given all the circumstances? And is it reasonable to suppose that a pilot, not even trained in a wave-off, could execute a blind landing in those conditions?
There are going to be times when there is going to be an emergency causing a commitment to land into horrendous conditions; fire, and God help us, hijack come to mind. But the chances of the lights going out at the most critical moment must be statistically off the scale. This captain may have cornered himself into a difficult landing, but was very, very unlucky for it to become an impossible one.