^ This.
I am also surprised by the warmth towards this event. There was a 737 parked on the 'threshold' to HF's runway. He knew it was there and still flew over the top of it. His R/T was shambolic and distracted - at best he was not up to the task; at worst, he wasn't paying attention. Neither gets excused so easily for me.
Granted, we all make mistakes, but in aviation mistakes are often an indicator that someone needs more training or a change of licence. That decision is up to the FAA.
As for excusing the landing on the rationale that it's easy to mistake the taxiway for a runway... 172Driver's photo doesn't look like that to me:
