Lowerlobe.
No, it's not playing with semantics. Not in the least. There is a huge difference between landing with idle forward thust set, and idle reverse. The very act of moving your hand forward and engaging the reverse thrust levers, for one thing.
Krusty,
Yes, I pretty well agree with you - the only question I have in my mind is that I don't think they selected ANY reverse thrust. When I read the report, I had the impression they became target fixated, thought "****, the brakes don't work" and then spent all their time tromping on them and forgot to engage the reverse thrust. I'm saying this from memory, so my aging brain cells may have changed the plot a bit, but I think that's about it.
So from that viewpoint, I disagree with the report that came to the conclusion they had had the reverse thrust trained out of them. I find it difficult to believe a highly experienced pilot (I am talking generalities here) with many years of applying reverse thrust can have it trained out of him in just a few months.
But it is all history and no amount of thinking about it will fix the outcome. Like most things, there was no "one" cause of this unfortunate event. We can but learn from other's misfortune and try our best to not step in the same cow-paddy.
N
PS .... I'm still sorely disappointed with the book. The round filing cabinet is looking better all the time - though I might keep it for the howlers.