Forget the moding, what if there had been a subtle failure or a ground system wasn't working as advertised? Isn't the pilot's job to scan the PFD, "Attitude, Height, Heading, Speed" and make certain they meet requirements? If the FD info is a tad off do we blindly follow it or "look through it" and make it work?
Best will in the world there will always be traps and failures that will catch pilots out but is it acceptable for a TRI and 2 other pilots to sit and watch a trainee fly 30kts below Vref?
If this had happened in an Airbus, Alpha Floor would have kicked in but what if it didn't? In any aircraft surely our expectation would have been a "Speed" call followed by someone moving the ^*+%#^% thrust levers or an actual pilot taking over.
I don't claim to be a sky god but the continuing dumbing down of our profession saps my will to live, the mistakes that are leading to deaths right now are those that any trained pilot had beaten out of them in their first 200 hours of aviation and have nothing to do with FMS and moding issues!
Happy to eat humble pie but on a CAVOK day, a crew with a perfectly working aircraft managed to miss a runway and kill and maim a bunch of people due to base incompetence. This is the third time it has happened this year and it is wholly unacceptable!