The topic now is whether and how severe their punishment should be?
Many years ago, according to his book, world-famous (WW2 fighter pilot) aerobatic expert Bob Hoover took off in his Twin Commander with a few passengers. The fueler had somehow put jet fuel into his (recip.) plane, which caused a dual engine failure, at night.
Mr. Hoover made a good dead-stick landing.
He was told that the fueler was history (would be fired). Bob said no, keep the humiliated guy. The fueler would now be the safest, most careful fueler around.
These two CO pilots will probably be some of the safest pilots-until this incident, they might have already been quite careful. Suddenly they have a major 'glitch' on their record. They probably have no more 'room', from a career perspective, for a major mistake.
The actual danger might now still lurk inside the hundreds or thousands of superior ("Weltflieger" usw) , professional pilots-Pprune fans or otherwise-who feel that they could never
make this type of serious mistake.
Years ago being fairly new on the 757 on the visual approach into Orlando (MCO), a Captain asked me to quickly build him an artificial, let's just say "won ton"
glidepath. I was slow doing it, having very little time. I could have missed a mistake on his part. Possibly something in the 757's automation at EWR, or a last-minute landing checklist, prevented one of the pilots from catching a trend or normal maneuver, which was missed by the flying pilot. Also, pilots mostly have the HSI in MAP display, instead of VOR, which would give you a normal on- or off-course "localizer" indication, to supplement the flight director. Were the localizer and VASI or PAPI in operation?
The amateurs who read Pprune might not realize how hazardous a visual approach can be, not just with rough, turbulent strong winds which can be quite a challenge, even in a DC-9 or a 757. The 757 often increases your workload, despite some automation, because they take longer to slow to the required max gear and flap extension speeds, as you are constantly descending. Flying a C-172 etc into a large airport can not begin to compare.