Sispanis ria,
Personally I wouldn't be so quick to mock the flight crew for leaving the autopilot in. When it first became apparent to them that there was a problem, a major problem, it would have been a priority to determine what that problem was. Immediately disconnecting the auto pilot is not the way to start analysing. They were obviously aware of decaying airspeed, hence the action taken to manually increase thrust.
I'm not saying one way or another that their actions were spot on because like everyone here, I don't know. What I am saying is that a completely unexpected reduction in thrust on both engines at that stage of the approach would cause a degree of shock. A good crew will take a moment to assess what is happening when they recieve a shock and not launch instantaneously into a course of action. It sounds to me like they acted professionally in a very very difficult situation. They tried manually increasing thrust, when that wasn't working they reduced drag. What other options were open to them??? Very few I would suggest. It sounds like you would have disconnected and pointed the nose down to maintain airspeed....would you have cleared all the obstacles and touched down on the tarmac? Would you're brain have been so busy juggling airspeed maintenance with obstacle clearance that you neglected to reduce drag and landed shorter than them killing many? I don't know but as I said in my opening sentence, I wouldn't be so quick to mock the aircrew for not disconnecting.
Just a thought, Cheers.
Last edited by cjam; 11th Aug 2008 at 00:19.