This thread really is quite unblievable for the amount of unadulterated crap being spouted.
In no particular order we have people expressing sympathy with the crew but at the same time being castigated as if they had a lack of sympathy with the Korean crew of the recent SFO crash! While the cultural issues are well known the effectiveness of the conversion training has to be questioned when the P/UT fundamentally did not understand the autothrust system. The two pilots have to live with the awful knowledge that they killed many people in the crash. I cannot begin to understand the culture but I would not be human if I did not have sympathy with the crew of that one.
In the JNB incident the picture above dramatically illustrates to the pious and the mischievous how easily it can be to miss the turn towards 03L and that is in daylight! Many airfields are like black holes at night and with poor signing and lighting making an error is all too easy to make.
In recent years far more emphasis has been placed on both pilots looking out of the windows with minimal other tasks being dealt with once on the move but is inevitable that at times only one pilot will be looking out if only for a brief period.
The captain will no doubt pay dearly for something for which he carried the ultimate responsibility whether that be in demotion, dismissal or just having to live with the knowledge of being responsible for the accident.
I know from personal experience that the standards are high in BA as well as many other airlines but show me any long established international carrier which hasn't had incidents or accidents which shouldn't have occurred in a perfect world.