P51 & Costamaia I agree that the crew was the major contributor to this accident. I have flown with all three of the cockpit crew and in particular my experience with Capt. Gilbert extends through the DC6B, L188 and the B707/720. The other two crew members had flown with me while I was flying Capt. I have also flown with this FA after the accident and it was obvious that it had taken it's toll on the young man. None of this makes me qualified to quantify the cause of the accident other than to say the the FA's imagination overflows in the posting,
The Anatomy of a Crash. In addition I know all of the pilots who investigated accident. There is no solid evidence that Capt. Gilbert has created an "atmosphere of henious hostility" on the flight deck and thus the crash ensued. Also just for the record Capt. Gilbert was not a Safety Pilot. I'm not aware of any such position at Western at the time, or since.
As for the F/O being up for 40 hours? If so he should have called in sick. He was a commuter from Seattle so maybe that affected this judgement call just as another recent accident had.
Fatigue was the number one factor in this accident. Errors were made by all crewmembers that would have been caught had they not been awake so long. No excuses for that, but it's the truth in this case. The Captain had been in and out of MEX for years and suspect his familarity with the operations caused him to let his guard down just when in fact there should have been red flags for everyone that morning. They didn't land on the wrong runway. They didn't even land on the runway period as the MLG was off the side in the dirt.
One interesting about Charlie Gilbert is that he learned to fly on the GI Bill after having served in the Marine Corps in Guadalcanal. He took a leave form Western and flew Captain at Japan Airlines. I always wondered how that worked out?
Hardly sounds like a guy with a temper problem.