Lufthansa A346 landed without clearance

[Super VC-10]

Incident: Lufthansa A346 at Toronto on Dec 1st 2013 , landed without clearance (http://avherald.com/h?article=46d24ebc&opt=0)

[hifly787]

GOBONA
Ok assume landing clearance was transmitted but not acknowledged , what does ATC do ? Allow a heavy to land ? If so with what precautions ?

[FLYDHC8]

That title makes it sound like it wasn't cleared to land, which isn't true - the clearance was transmitted by ATC but the aircraft either didn't receive it, didn't reply or couldn't reply. I find it hard to believe it would have continued to land without knowing it was cleared, though.

They didn't change from Approach frequency to Tower frequency which means they didn't check in with tower, landed and taxied until being told to stop via approach frequency, am I missing something?

[HEATHROW DIRECTOR]

Unless the crew received a specific landing clearance and there was no emergency situation they should have made a missed approach. Occasionally an aircraft may be late contacting the tower. In that case ATC may presume R/T problems and make a blind transmission of the landing clearance. The Tower would (should have) telephoned Approach Control to let them know that the aircraft had not made contact. If it was still on the approach frequency, the tower could have passed landing cleranace via approach. There are just so many possibilities...