Paulsalem, I could answer YES to almost every point. Regarding the fuel, they did not declare an emergency. Let me remind you that the Captain said that Visi was 600, which is absolutely wrong. The lights in sight or anything else does not allow them to continue the approach below 1000 AGL if RVR<550m, which was the case. And I am not talking about 500 meters, but 200 !!!!!
The fact that you raised these points shows that, in your opinion, you could disregard rules in case you estimate you have good reasons to do so. I would agree, in case of a real emergency. But here, it was not the case: they parked just beside my plane and I discussed with the ground staff afterward. Smolensk crew also had good reasons: they had polish president on board ! It does not change the result...
GolfSierra, you are right: we were exactly in a situation of thin fog patches (or layer): from the sky, you can see the ground. From the ground, you can't see anything. I had to work on an event where the Cpt elected to continue eventhough he lost briefly the sight of the ground. At touchdown, he has mistaken the side lights for the center lights and corrected accordingly: he deviated to the side of the RWY, left the RWY, cut the taxiway (that was empty, by chance) before coming back to the runway. The presence of an A/C on this RWY would have caused an other Tenerife.
I will check the link, thank you.