This is a classic case of poor judgement followed by presonitis. The mere fact that this aeroplane was being flown on the automatics after the pilots accepted a visual approach suggested that they were both out of their depth as soon as they elected to go it alone. They were in no way prepared to accept this clearance. They opted to fly a visual manoeuvre through the autopilot and ended up hanging on to the tail of their aircraft.
This business of taking a visual clearance and then half heartedly flying it with the autopilot or flight director is nonsense. If you haven't the confidence to fly the aircraft with your own hands then take radar vectors.