henryarundel, no that was not the same aircraft.....
Afriqiyah SOP's do not allow for a "managed" NPA as they don't yet have approval from the LYCAA the same is true for Libyan Airlines in "their" 320's (Actually none of the Libyan A320's are 5A registered and are on another none Libyan AOC)
As of last week the VASI was not working on R/W 09 and there were several outages (not NOTAM'd) of all of the NDB stations which form the 09 approach.
Were the crew flying the approach from the database?
I hope all crews flying in Libya are flying from the "box" as none of the ground equipment can be trusted in Libya, Tripoli HLLT is one of the few airports in Libya where the charts do not carry the warning that the procedure is on an experimental basis.
ATC at Tripoli lack a basic understanding of what they are doing... almost every single clearance they give over the radio is wrong and far from standard.
TCAS RA's are an almost daily event, in what is a light traffic airport.
Was any of this a factor... who knows.. but it is an accident waiting to happen... National pride in Libya needs to take a sidestep while some proper standards are forced upon them - if they refuse to accept it then they should join the rest of the African countries on the BAN list.