ManchesterMan
I understand from passenger accounts of the accident
the A340 was on its second approach to the airfield
when it crashed........
Passenger accounts should always be taken with more than a grain of salt. When a Martinair DC-10 crashed in Faro about 10 years ago, some surviving passengers declared that the airplane had attempted several landings prior to that accident. Now, the radar plots, data recorders, tower tapes, and CVR all proved otherwise: no go-arounds were made prior to that fatal landing, but that hasn't stopped those passengers from being totally convinced of
their "truth" up to this day.
Other passengers in that airplane were convinced an engine had been on fire before the landing. Again: the investigators found no proof whatsoever, but tell that to the passengers.
Unfortunately, witness accounts are unreliable by nature. Not because these people are liars, but because the mind plays strange tricks to humans in stressful situations. (And of course, most people are totally unfamiliar with aircraft operations.)