I just read this thread hours later and cannot believe how you all could take part in this frantic media hype. I thought that ppruners are immune against blown up media sensations.
Did you expect the blood running out of the plane when it crashed?
:
Here some calm thoughts:
Fuel dumping. No short haul aircraft has this ability. Only long haul, they have to take so much fuel, that their max take-off weight is considerably higher than their max landing weight. An A320 can land with its maximum take-off weight, but you should run through a long checklist (verify runway is long enough aso). The same with B737, MD80, F100...
landing with abnormal gear configuration: Airbus checklist recommends not to arm GND SPLRS (although only for main landing gear problems), which means, they will not extend. It might give an additional kick during touchdown which could worsen the situation. But that's pure speculation from my side. The same reasoning might have been behind not using reversers: Land it soft and keep the nose wheel as long as possible in the air, until horizontal stabiliser no longer effective. Then you have the least force on the nose wheel.
Dani