Just my 2C,
If the AAIB are prepared to go public on a very probable icing issue here, after my 15,00hrs, much of it Ultra Long Haul, albeit on B747s, I will believe them.
The crew actions can be second guessed forever, but after the Schipol freighter double engine failure and loss a few years ago, we tried it (As I'm sure most 747 operators in the world did) in the sim.
Being fully aware of the preliminary reports, doing a briefing, and configuring the sim as best we could to simulate the conditions experienced by the crew, it took me, as a Training Captain, 4 tries to achieve even a marginally survivable result----and this was not at the end of a 15 hour day.
Re a previous post, from my recall, the 747 at F25 required an increase of pitch of about 1.25 degrees above that for F30, but with a significant decrease in power required i.e. drag, so good call there for the flap reduction.
Well done crew.
As an aside, from the later pictures, it would appear that a significant part of the A/C was on the piano keys, so it wasn't really a short landing, just an early touchdown.
I'll get my coat.
