PJ2,
Thanks very much for this enlightenment.
No one knows whether he got to that stage or not. In the present context, executing a GA would be inhibited/constrained by a feeling of shock/disbelief at the alert/warning and the fact that it would be an admission of piloting failure. They do have ego's in the cockpit -- especially when you have 35 years of service and 25,000 plus hours and the guy sitting to your right thinks you are god!
And you know that.
But he may have been in GA mode as some witnesses on the ground attest...but too late for the reasons I have adduced.
Had he changed over to Cherat APP as someone suggested? No way. The last thing on my mind in the frantic last-second execution of this escape maneuver with the Margalla hills looming in front of me would be to look down and change frequencies to tell ATC what I was doing. He can wait -- especially after the bugger kept telling me how to fly the aeroplane. I would worry about that later -- when safely up in the sky.
I think ATC is hugely complicit in this tragedy since he must have been on their radar (unless it was U/S).
The captain was 61 so assuming he got his job with Airblue immediately after retirement from PIA he could not have many hours in-type. The F/O was on his first or second regular flight on the line. Were they 'paired' correctly?
Contributory factors I would say but not sufficient to explain flying a fatally-flawed approach at what appears to be a 45 degree off-set from a parallel down-wind. The mind boggles.
Thanks again.