A very sad mishap.
All too many times on both sides of the pond it's the crew that suck up the pressure of other agencies' genuine delays or just pure ineptitude.
Sadly, I think it is true to say that there will always be circumstances that you can't legislate for in every checklist.
Too often, it's a good dose of airmanship that may save the day (or night, at the end of a long day) - the glove over the throttles, or dropped HUD as we use - as a blanket, unmissable reminder that "something" is different.
I don't think "pilot error" is a suitable conclusion, but they let themselves get into that situation, with no 'out'. That, I believe, is something we can all learn from this. RIP.