During the time period when the air/ground parameter switched back to "air," the speed brake handle position momentarily moved toward the down position and then returned to the armed position where it stayed for the remainder of the recording.
The lever will never move from armed to disarmed, or disarmed to armed on its own. They must be talking about the status of the auto speedbrake function, not the physical handle itself.
I wonder if the confusion is over nomenclature.
The speedbrake lever has three labeled positions, Down, Armed and Up. When the lever is fully up on the quadrant, it is in the Down position. When it it fully down, it is in the Up postion. I wonder if the NTSB brief meant the handle briefly moved down to the Up position, then returned to Armed.
Kinda sounds like some of those possibly ersatz non-flying handling pilot procedures that were going around ops bulletin boards a few years ago.
If you lightly bounce on landing with a little extra power or gusty winds, sometimes the speedbrake lever will cycle as the tilt sensors load and unload before weight is fully on the wheels. Or, so I'm told...
Some carriers use manual speedbrakes (and throttles) for gusty landings, others do not. Looks like the speedbrake lever was indeed armed on this approach.
I have never seen a pilot deploy thrust reversers before touchdown. Has anybody else? They won't deploy in modern aircraft if you did so what difference does it make?
Years ago those country boys at Piedmont had a homemade short field procedure on the 737-200 where they would pull the throttles to idle and pull back on the T/R levers in the flare. As soon as the gear touched down and the squat switches closed, the buckets would open without delay for a quick stop. Later when the 737-300's came along, the T/R levers were released by ten (or was it five?) feet radar altitude causing a spectacular fall from grace when the short field 'technique' was used.