The crew displayed grossed ineptitude. How can a captain of a 737NG be unable to perform an rnav approach? How can he touch down in here last third of a runway at close to mlw (wet one at that,with a strong tailwind), and expect to stop on the remaining hard surface?
I revisit my earlier point about the cultural/racial bias displayed on these forums. An AA crew makes a monumental cockup such as this, and the third is full of posts regarding institutional problems, systemic training issues and error chains. A lion air, Asiana, or some third world crew make a similar mistake, and pages and pages of comments regarding fly for pay, incompetent brown people being let lose in high tech machinery, ensue, etc. Never fails.
I'm sorry, Safetypee, but I disagree with you. As soon as I see a tailwind, I think Flap 40. As soon as I see a weight close to MLW, I think Flap 40. As soon as I see "wet", I think Flap 40. Maybe the runway is huge, and reconsider the flap selection if I have had one of those prompts, but two or more of them and I will land Flap 40 regardless of the runway. If there is any suspicion over stopping distances, and this crew should have had some with the combination above, then I'll do the numbers.
What is unforgivable, given the above lapse, is to try to press a landing in a thunderstorm.
That they refuse to go around when the touchdown zone ran out was plain stupidity. Like I said, I have seen that elsewhere, and it has been done to me by FOs mishandling the flare and resulted in the terrain escape maneouver being applied and preventing a run-off. This element concerns me most because of its frequency and its blatency - if you miss the touch-down carpet, you have to go around, no ifs, no buts, so why do so many pilots press a bad landing and crash the aircraft.
I'm sorry, but I can't forgive this crew. They failed to apply basic airmanship principles every step of the way.
Clearly American Airlines has forgiven him. He's back in the left seat, didn't lose any seniority either. Need to get the phone number for his lawyer. That guys worth every penny!