@ShyTorque - I think alot can be taken away from that and I suspect you are very close to the truth.
Also in the helicopter world, I've been 'plugged in' in the back listening to the discussion in the front about the crew deciding if they had the right visuals for a Nato T, listening to this I decided to to turn around and see what was going on poking my head through to the cockpit, both crew totally fixated on the lights outside, no one monitoring the instruments, airspeed washing off rapidly and rate of decent rapidly increasing, neither crew aware, I called the go around. The crew were getting confused with brighter lights nearby which were much clearer than the Nato T.
Slightly different scenario but I think it goes to highlight the night environment can catch you out very quickly as you become fixated.