You guys just dont get it do you?
Put yourselves in the QF drivers seat for a moment.
You arrive at the circuit and you know that aircraft have missed out on approaches to the minima. ... its in the report.
You know that the weather is getting worse just by observation. ...its in the report
You know that you dont have fuel to divert...its in the report.
What would you do?
What happened to.. Analyze, Decide, Implement,
Evaluate ..?
What we can all agree on is that both aircraft found themselves in a situation where they were fast being painted into a corner and the only option available to both was an emergency landing. A landing that had the very real possibility of damage and or injury to the aircraft and passengers.
Two separate crew, in the same aircraft type, handling the situation in two very different ways.
OK, the outcome for both was the same, no one was hurt, VH-VYK and VH-YIR (no mention of the airlines involved here, lets keep emotion out of it) landed without injury or damage. The decision making processes that ultimately lead to that same outcome, at this stage and going on the information we have in the prelim report, were
very different!
One crew it seemed, planned and discussed what they were doing, from alerting ATC to providing a local standby, briefing the cabin crew and even discussing where to expect they might see the runway when they did get visual by looking at the wind vector.
The other crew it seems just decided on the first attempt to 'bust' minima and land. Did the cabin crew or passengers know that the aircraft was carrying out an emergency landing? Did they discuss or evaluate exactly what they were about to do?
Now, more information may come to light that provides a clearer picture on the decision making by the crew of VH-VYK and they could of well discussed such matters.
I'm sure that the crew of both VH-YIR and VH-VYK are nothing short of competent professionals, but that doesn't mean that by going over the facts in the cold hard light of day we can't, at this point in proceedings start formulating some cold hard questions that when evaluated and discussed will hopefully provide some cold hard answers that will ultimately benefit everyone
