So I've been following this extremely interesting latterly discussion and would like to ask if I have understood this correctly - it appears that the pilots forgot to do something as basic as add thrust in a timely manner because they were either regressing to procedures learned on a previous type, or victims of a modern training regime that emphasizes rote learning over understanding and piloting skill..
I had always assumed that landings were conducted with the airliner "bridled and saddled", that is, with the thrust levers in hand and held with vigilance should their immediate use be required, as say if some object were spotted on the runway that was not clearly visible on short final.. if these guys actually went out of their way to raise the gear before adding thrust.. is this just a simple misunderstanding of what the TOGA button/lever does? Thanks in advance.
-drl