Originally Posted by
Treble one
Because he was 800 feet lower than he should be to hit his gate?
That's true, but it doesn't necessarily follow that he failed to realise it, which was the statement of yours that the previous poster queried.
He may instead have judged that he still had sufficient height to complete the loop (and of course he was very close to being correct).
At the risk of being boring and quoting yet again from the report, the AAIB did indeed allude to this possibility and declined to rule it out.