Another point to the Airbus, expanding on the 20ft 'retard' call. It is a guide not a rule. With a 10Kt tail wind the thrust levers can and need to be closed at 30-40 feet. Whilst with a 30 knot headwind I would keept the thrust to maybe 10 feet. For a crosswind we add an increment onto Vapp. Flight is analog not digital though the figures are an excellent guide and in normal ops correct. The other point is that the flare is not 'fire and forget' - the aircraft needs to be flown down to the ground. At the start of my airline flying I would literally cut the thrust at 20, raise the nose a cm and wait and see what happened. With time and a will to do better I have tried to adjust - though for a week a month my landings still go to sh1t - and usually when I am flying with a captain I haven't flown with before!
By the sounds of it this chap made a split second error of judgement. It happens, he is human. He is now more experienced in it than most of us. Keep learning, keep caring and keep searching for perfection.