WTH?!?
I have about as much idea as anyone (except the crew) as to what really happened, however some of the post on here are mind-blowing. Again - not saying this about the crew (see first statement) - but to some of the previous posters:
If you can't land a heavy jet to a visual approach w/o a glideslope or VASI/PAPI in CAVU conditions, I don't want you flying my family or me, period dot.
I hate to say this, I'm not the best pilot ever, and like many of you, I have flown Asia-US, overnight, tired, etc as a PIC to visual conditions. I have had the luxury/benefit of some very good training programs from ASEL private to my last PC. I thought this was basic stuff!!!
I have not flown the 777, but I would imagine that there are similar rules of thumb to calculate a ROD wag from your groundspeed, 3 to 1 rules, etc. None of these require VASI/PAPI or glideslope/path indicators.
My basic frustration is some of you thinking that a failed cross check is an excuse. Am I on my visual profile profile (900' @ 3miles, 600' @ 2miles, etc). I am? Good. Aimpoint, Airspeed. Still on profile? Ok. Aimpoint, Airspeed. Yes, there is more that goes into it as we introduce automation, but c'mon - is this or isn't this a stabilized approach??? If not, fix it or go-around. We've got way too much responsibility to be 'lazy' - and I thought I was the laziest type 'z' person I knew.
Again, my best to the crew. I can't even imagine the guilt (whether or not it was their 'fault') of having a fatality associated with one of my flights.
For the rest of us, please - if you really don't know how to do something that should be trivial, fess up and learn it and incorporate that in your bag of SA.
Cheers