Originally Posted by
Doors to Automatic
Call me a naive non-pilot but shouldn't it be a don't go there in the first place scenario?
Having already made a (seemingly wrong) decision to continue an approach into the mouth of a CB (sometimes painted inaccurately btw, by your weather radar) we now need another plan B. A thunderstorm could kill us but in all probably won't (but might severely damage the aeroplane). Compare that to an overrun at very high speed and it has very dire consequences. I'm no stranger to landing in Bergamo. The summer storms there can be aggressive in the extreme and when mixed with high terrain nearby are certainly not for the squeamish when they get going. An early decision to divert is "hindsight correct" but armchair philosophy after the event. No one will ever know the exact mindset of the PIC who decided to continue with a landing in such conditions - notwithstanding what they might recall for an ASR. Hopefully though, we'll all learn from it. Thank God it won't be for us to decipher the last seconds from the CVR.