Originally Posted by
.Scott
There was still a good amount of green line left in front of the closest aircraft on the taxiway.
Obviously, it was still possible to miss that cue. Without an actual (not simulated) photo of that approach under those conditions, it would be hard to judge how conspicuous the color was.
My opinion based on 17K hours of experience. From a distance (6-8 miles out) the dimmed whites and bright greens look similar. Not like the sim picture above from short final with all the runway lights on high. This is also the distance where pilots flying a visual have already identified the runway and in their mind have shifted focus from runway identification to landing the A/C on the runway, I.E. airspeed, descent, final configuration. Throw in some circadian rhythm effects and tiredness and the holes begin to line up.
Without mentally forcing yourself to backup and reconfirm your earlier decisions one can become focused on the task at hand and prior mistakes will go unchallenged.