Pilots Forget Landing Gear
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
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Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303 (PIA 8303) crashed in Karachi after a failed landing attempt without lowering the landing gear. After a go-around, the Airbus A320 crashed shortly before Runway 25L. What was the cause for the crash of this A320? Why did the pilots not succeed during this emergency landing? Find out with me in this episode of Airspace, as we take a close look at the crash of PIA 8303.
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These Pilots Simply Forgot THAT? | Pakistan International Airlines Flight 8303
Disaster in Pakistan: PIA 8303's Fatal Mistake
Credits
Music:
Epidemic Sounds
Visuals:
MSFS2020
Storyblocks
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How Are You
I'm sorry for not being a member anymore. I had to cancel all subscriptions and memberships, donation that were dear to me because of the energyshituation (not a spelling mistake). I went quite basic, and sadly that also included your channel.
I'll still be 'just' subscribed to wacltch your videos though. You know I've like them from the very beginning and I still do. They are so comprehensible whereas the ones recreating a crash with MSFSx or 2000 use technical terms like everyone immediately goed 'oh,yes that seems logical' and hence goes over my head most of the time . Yours never do. And how cool the Patrons got an actual engine part! Admit I am a little jealous but hey, they deserved it:)
not to worry! I thank you very much for your past support :)
The pilots had first extended the landing gear to reduce speed, but then forgot about it when the usual moment to extend it for landing came. Then, they mistakenly retracted the landing gear unconsciously thinking they were extending it. There is only one thing you can do with the landing gear lever: change its up or down position to the opposite. Which they just did without consciously thinking what state resulted.
this one showed a whole bunch of incompetence and complete lack of awareness.
Paki pilots are special
Hum. If I wanted to stop such accidents… I’d require a different motion to raise/lower the gear, but also keep an intuitive link between the motion and its outcome (If mounted on a horzontal surface, make it a plunger type selector, press down to lower, pull up to raise.. Also add audible chimes (decending tone for lowered gear, rising tone for raising gear) - call them ‘id-ten-t chimes’, and perhaps suppress them if the gear action makes sense in context (climbing after takeoff + raising gear, on ILS + lowering gear). Lastly, sound terrain warnings if about to land gear up.
Though with all those tweaks/enhancements, someone would STILL find a way to land a plane gear up by mistake -> I’d gladly refer them to Darwin for a consult.
@@Relkond Good usability recommendations. A lot of people miss this when designing user interfaces. In this case, the landing gear “switch” is a lever with two little wheels (that is, just like the actual landing gear) that one must pull down in order to lower the gear. This lever is also unlike anything else in the cockpit. So, basically, they’ve already followed your advice - and these pilots _still_ managed to goof it all up.
While it would appear that there are a number of issues that led up to the point that you were describing, I find your theory to be a very plausible explanation for their otherwise incomprehensible actions once they reached that decision point. Very good insight.
The air traffic controller seemed more competent than the pilots themselves
... and they are still suspended till date
Sadly, yes.
@@n3ov What, the controllers? If anything they repeatedly showed competence when pilots didn't. (PIA 8303 was far from an unusual case, with previous cases where ATC ordered the aircraft to go around, orders that were ignored)
@@NielsC68 Sadly, such is the incompetency of our authority. They were not allowed to perform duties again. It's been almost 2.5 years since the incident.
ATC could have used binoculars and relayed information to the pilots, that their landing gear was up.
This appears to be a training issue.
Them not responding to Air traffic, and carrying on with the landing, shows their inflated egos had overridden the rational thinking causing them to make mistakes that could of easily been avoided. Not responding to Air Traffic should be a offence, as bad communication puts lives at risk.
Malicious intent? No. Malicious stupidity? Yes.
A stabilized approach is required for a reason.
Sounds like "too much" experience, leading to "nah, I can do everything, screw the standard procedures".
One of the most tragic and preventable crash of recent times. If only they listened to the ATC...
I think it's a plain case of continuation bias. The bias to continue if you think it is at all possible to achieve your desired outcome without deviating from the original plan.
I believe the gear was raised because of a combination of stress and habit. In the A320(at least my company's SOPs and what I have seen other operators do), selecting gear down and flaps three are almost always done together. The pilot flying may have called for "Gear down, flaps 3" and the pilot monitoring may have also forgotten the gear was already down and simply moved the gear handle before selecting flaps 3 purely by muscle memory.
Excellent review of this incident; it was a hard one to watch when it happened. Keep up the great work, you are punching way above your weight class with this content!
thank you so much!
This is exactly why the Sterile Cockpit rule exists. If Pakistan doesn't have such a rule, then hopefully this incident would be a good impetus to impose one.
Covid alcohol wipes are heavily promoted in Pakistan , the cockpit was sterile... food safety however is NOT recommended in Pakistan. Avoid the street foods
@@Haywood-Jablomie That's not what "sterile cockpit" means. It means that flight crew are forbidden from discussing anything that isn't directly related to the safe operation of the aircraft during critical phases of flight such as takeoff or landing.
@@PassiveSmoking I know. lol . I was just joking around. In most airlines and airspaces it's recommended to have a sterile cockpit at or below 10000 feet. Some it's 8000 to 12000. I was only making a covid joke because those useless wipes are everywhere still
Airspace and Mentour Pilot are the only channels that I trust to give good and informative reports regarding the air accidents. Great work as always!
It is though a really unfortunate ending to this story, but luckily there weren't many more casualties from the residential area considering the destruction that the aircraft caused.
Don't forget 3 Greens - Aviation Safety and Green Dot Aviation. Both great channels with the latter having the best presentation of any aviation channel imo.
Green dot aviation is also very good.
@@djaneczko4 Airspace, Mentour and Green Dot Aviation are three of my favourite channels. They make me wanna become a pilot. I don't know about 3 greens, i've never watched his videos.
Yes but finding Mentor Pilot a bit too verbose recently.
Mentour landed on my blacklist after he totally bluntly copied AeroNewsGermanys Blueprints to sell them. Btw. that channel is probably the best aviation channel out there, but only in german
The initial botched approach was likely due to personal issues such as poor focus and bad judgement, but when they ignored four offers to correct their mistakes by going around, I suspect two factors at play:
1. An incompetence so grave it prevented them from a timely realization that a safe decent has become impossible and
2. Fear that a horribly belated go-around request might expose their fraudulent licenses…
Unbelievable! I am speachless! But: Much respect to the traffic controllers at the airport. If only the pilots would have accepted their helpfull offer!
They were pilots and much superior to ATC so they couldn't accept suggestions from them.
There were no pilots on that flight, only passengers.
In my Opinion this was simply pilot error. Failure to abide by the sterile cockpit rule thus engaging in extraneous talks during the critical phase of the flight, this led to a none stabilised approach which was handled improperly, leading to the crash. A Simple piloting dictate is; if not sure, go around. If you are receiving warnings of any kind or yet to achieve the stabilised approach criteria at the MDA/DH, go around.
Fantastic video of this. Any idea why the final report still isn’t out?
I guess pakistan's AIB isn't among the most efficient ones, considering their past track record...
incompetent government, the investigators will want some cash injection (that will fund their new Louis Vuitton trunks) to release the report
I have read about this one before but nowhere else were the dodgy pilot's licences mentioned! Wow...
As was said, i guess it still needs to be ascertained whether the two in question had them....although presumably whether the Captain's licence transpires to be a forgery or not, in reality may not be that much if an issue if the nan had, incredibly, flown over 18000 hours - presumably by then he had got the gist of it!
To me, it sounds very much like the captain simply being highly emotional and unprofessional and overriding/ignoring the prompts from the control tower and his own first officer - not to mention of course, everything the plane itself was telling him.
But the final thing that took my breath away was powering up to go around after they'd already hit the ground!!! At that point they should DEFINITELY have just been resigned to the fact there had been a major screw up and let the thing scrape to a halt. It almost felt like, in doing the go around at that catastrophically late point, that somehow "no one would notice" or that at least the plane would just need some minor panel and paintwork.....it just reeked of inadequate personalities, lacking professionalism and flying passengers by the seat of their pants instead of by the book......
Ah yes, my classic old landing routine in flight simulations. Sudden, steep, fast and twice.
After seeing this, I searched Google and here is what I found:
Pilot licensing scam: Pakistani airlines face flying ban to 188 countries
Pakistan Civil Aviation Authority has failed to meet the international norms related to the personnel licensing and training in relation to the licensing process for pilot
It seems like nobody thought about turning on the APU after the first landing attempt, hence the ram air turbine. Maybe their qualifications were a little "embellished" ?
"will they make it to the runway? Find out with me why it crashed".
I guess it didn't make the runway, that was the shortest suspense ever 😉
😄
But can you imagine? Looking at the whole sequence of events, these guys actually did both. They first made it to the runway and then went up again so that they could crash. I doubt I could do that no matter how hard I tried. Also, you must do it in this order. You just can't crash first and then make it to the runway.
Landing checklist: complete
Thank you for another gem of yours! Unbelievable, that even in "Heavy Weight" jobs like this the routine and even worse the "whatever it'll be fine" effect can kick in.
Wow, that's so cool with the actual engine parts to first class Patrons! 😀
Sadly, this is one of the airplane accidents that make me the most upset, since it seems to have been caused by such recklessness. Though I think it is also important for the investigation to consider what might have contributed to the poor decision-making.
Anyway, great video as always! Gave much more insight than I had before!
I hope you had a nice Christmas and wish you a Happy new year!
Thank you so much, and a happy new year to you too!
Was wanting to watch a video on this disaster, uploaded just at the right time, also been loving your videos lately!
thank you :)
Great video as always!
Merry Christmas, and I hope the last days of this year will be sweet, and that the new year becomes a great one!
merry christmas to you too!
I cannot put into words the sheer level of incompetence displayed here. You could almost be forgiven for thinking they had never flown an aircraft before. As for the sketchy licenses, well….. given the country I’m not the slightest bit surprised.
well this is a bit ironic isn't it...
it would appear that their judgment was severely compromised by the excessive anger due to the argument.
Can you imagine being a passenger, seeing the runway only a few feet underneath you and the landing gear not down? Yikes!
Reckless, incompetent, not following SOP's. They paid with their lives. Unfortunately not just theirs. Love how well the video is made and narrated.
Your description is so good. Though I am not into aviation, I really like listening to such incidents!! Just before this, I saw your germanwings incident. Thank you for your explanation!!
Thank you so much!
Damn, it's tricky. They want confident pilots, so they can stay composed and speak up when something is wrong, but then it also becomes more likely that their pride would keep them from admitting mistakes and making the right decisions...
One fact that many have missed is that this crash was during a Ramadhan fasting month. Both Pakistani pilots are Muslims and seem to be devout (judging by their families' comments on Facebook), and it is likely that both pilots were fasting at that time. The low blood sugar condition must have caused the loss of concentration on managing the altitude, the mistake of retracting the landing gear while trying to lower it, and the severe confusion when all the cockpit alarms were blaring. Imagine when you are hypoglycemic and thirsty, all your senses, including sight and sound dampen out - your vision blurs, your ears ring. Those who have fasted must have known this sensation very well. Crash time was at 14:45 local time, thus about 12 hours after starting the fast. Added to the fact that this is after COVID-19 lockdown when many pilots were a bit rustier, thus explains why such experienced pilots committed such basic errors.
people don't understand how MANY warnings would have sounded in the cockpit once they went below their minimum altitude w/o the landing gear extended, how they managed to ignore all of that is truly astounding it's almost as if they turned deaf and wanted to crash the plane
Looks very similar to what I do in Microsoft flight simulator. Can’t believe actual pilots were this incompetent.
They should have never took it back in the air after belly flopping on the runway. It may have been bad but not as bad as what happened ultimately
Really sad what has happened to PIA, used to be one of the best in the world for a long time but typical incompetent bureaucracy has put them in the embarrassing state they're in now
I don't understand why the pilot wanted to do a go around when the plane had touched down without extending the landing gear. Surely it would have been safer to have damaged the runway rather than crashing the plane.
Discussing covid before the crash. Better count those deaths as covid related...
You may be able to fake a pilots license, it's nearly impossible to fake landing skills.
I commented on this on another YT channel right after the accident. I listened to the tapes of communications between the pilots and the controllers. I also checked the PIA website. These pilots were Oxygen starved. They were not thinking straight. PIA had strict COVID mask requirements for all crew. On top of that, it was Ramadan, and they had been fasting. Masks restrict Oxygen intake. Add a Cabin Altitude of 8,000 ft. during the flight, and these guys were in dreamland. There's an old joke about a pilot who landed gear up. Afterward, the Tower controller asked why the pilot didn't respond to his warnings. The pilot said, I couldn't hear the radio because the damned Gear Warning Horn was too loud. The PIA crew could not think straight!
Sorry, your theory is higly impossible if not entirely unlikely. Masks do not affect oxygen saturation in the blood, and the cabin altitude during approach is roughly 1000ft to 0ft, so these pilots were definitely not hypoxic.
Unacceptable
Glad you have sponsors now. Your channel is doing well! Great job number one! Happy holidays and new year!
Thank you so much :) And a happy new year to you, too!
20, 000 hours Capt but no skills. Crash landed without extending the gears and took off again after damaging both the Engines instead of full stop and killed everyone on Board.
Wow, the approach controller was obviously VERY worried about these guys.
Approach controllers usually do the opposite- they hang you out to dry and leave you high and fast right before handing you off to the next controller.
This guy knew a crash was coming-he offered them numerous options to descend, and then even got landing clearance for them because he knew it was chaos in there. He was trying to prevent a crash.
If you study aviation history in Pakistan you will come to see that about 90 percent of the accidents in that country are either because of pilot error or incompetence. And yet they claim they have the best pilots in the world.
Maybe if their only comparison group are Afghan pilots?
@@seriouscat2231 People from Afghanistan never claimed they had the best pilots. yet they hardly had any accidents
The pilots DID NOT FORGET LANDING GEAR. What they forgot to do was SLOW DOWN AND TAKE ATCs ADVICE FOR AN ORBIT.
the pilots were nitwits. They were not focused on their primary job i.e., flying and safely landing the aircraft. So they commited series of mistakes. 1) didn't follow SOPs as far as elevation and speed are concerned. 2) Instead of taking an orbit to safely lowering the elevation, they opted unnecessarily for acrobatic maneuvers to drastically attain desired elevation before landing. 3) they didn't bother about warning alarms about the retracted landing gears. perhaps it was because there were multiple warning alarms sounding in the cockpit and they weren't at par to deal with such situation. 4) It seems that the first officer didn't contribute much. he didn't say anything nor try to bring pilot's attention to situations mentioned above. 5) After touchdown and realization that landing gears are not down, the pilots should have turned off the engines and tried to stop the plane. flying it again was simply dumb. 6) Once airborne again, and knowing that engines have failed, it was idiotic to lowering landing gears before time. it increased the drag. if gears were lowered after a few minutes, the plane could have crossed the housing area
Loss of situational awareness , followed by a sudden loss of life ✈️😖
Ime not about the fact they even did lower the gear in the first place
In my opinion it was pilots and atc fault. You can't put all blame to pilots. If you hear cvr you would know it was an unstablised approach and pilots insisted to proceed due to over confidence. Atc can prevent that incident but he didn't instead he asked pilots do you want to perform belly landing? What a stupid question could it be. Pilots forgot to extract landing gear due to high work load of unstablised approach. When they realised due to high speed they crossed the landing zone and no enough runway is left they decided a go around. Which was not possible due to engine damage with ground. After climbing with remaining thrust they manually extract landing gear which increased drag to plane and it started loosing altitude. During landing alarm was telling them something is wrong and instead of going around and sort out the problem pilots insisted to land and killed everyone. Still there is no response from airbus about flight data recorder and final report of investigation.
They likely asked if they wanted to do a belly landing because they would have assumed the aircraft had a gear malfunction.
“Will it make it to the runway? Find out with me today as we take a look at the *crash*”
Dang spoilers
Ah, but they did make it to the runway ... the first time around!
Smooth transition to that sponsor ad, nicely done 😄
All of this sounds more like something that a flight simmer during his first couple of flights would do, not real pilots in a real plane.
The ECAM Memo LDG has at least 2 blues in such a situation, if I remember correctly.
The GPWS screams "TOO LOW, GEAR!" and probably other warnings and these guys just irgnore all of it.
Nevermind being stable at 1000 feet.
There is just no excuse here. Even if they felt overwhelmed, that would just have been another argument to do a go around and sort everything out.
Let alone the fact, that they went on the decent all wrong. Slow your speed above ground down first, then go flaps 4 und gear down. Yes, technically higher speeds mean higher drag, so you lose energy quicker, but if you slow down your speed towards the runway, you gain a lot more time simply by taking longer to reach the runway.
Thumbnail: *hinting about whacky piloting*
Narrator: "Over Karachi, Pakistan's most popular city..."
Me: *totally unsurprised*
These pilots really think they’re in flight simulator 🤦♂️
I have watched several videos of this particular crash, but none of them had the information about the landing gears being retracted after they were lowered. Perhaps that is what was found from the FDR since this is a much newer video. Some Pakistani amateur pilots along with foreign pilots having 22000 flying hours re-enacted the exact pilot errors and configuration of PK8303 in level-D flight simulators of A320, and one of the amateur pilots reported that although the aircraft rings bells and gives stick shaker warnings but perhaps the pilots of PK8303 confused landing gear warnings with speed warnings hence went ahead with the landing anyway as the speed warnings were perhaps a smaller issue.
I’m sure the investigators knew within the first few days whether or not the licenses were fake. However, it takes longer to understand WHY it was done, HOW it was done and WHO was at fault all without losing their jobs.
A sheer consequence of ignorance of the SOPs, i come from Pakistan and having lived there from 14 years followed by 15 years of travelling the world, i realize how primitive we were back there, and sadly, still are. Many pilots were revealed to be flying under fake licenses for years during investigations following this incidence. Religion rules the country, and every thing is attributed to 'it was meant to be, it was written'. Hence no one can be held accountable, i lose my brain cells trying to understand the psychology and rationale. Alas! corruption and nepotism runs deep. No body sued the airlines and the pilots were instead haled as martyrs. This guy should've been listed among the worst pilots in the history of aviation but I'm certain he has 'shaheed (Martyr)' written on his tomb stone. The pilot said 'Insha'Allah' (God willing)? Try to announce that to the passengers during a preflight briefing....God willing?
They lost focus and on the go around it’s like they froze up not knowing what to do. The plane was further ahead of them. They were two feet behind the plane when they and the plane should have been in the same spot, but the plane was faster than their thoughts and reactions. They should have let the plane skid down the runway. There may have been a greater chance for passenger survival. They were confused.
Yes! Finally a video on this crash! As far as I know, it is still under investigation and only a preliminary report has been released. But maybe I didn't catch up to the latest news. Poor piloting indeed.
We can deduce from this vlog that the ROOT CAUSE of the accident was (mysterious!!??) A320 LANDING GEAR RETRACTION: how can both pilots miss RED lights? Was there any LDG or it’s system modification performed? Could there have been auto-retraction of LDG (system fault) subsequent to overspeed landing approach? Could there be malfunction of the LDG switch itself?
Can anyone aviation expert answer the questions above?
@airspace the "Landing Gear Not Extended" warning is clear enough to cause a pilot to check the position of the landing gear lever, right? Unless the pilot in question is distracted. Thanks for the awesome videos! Greetings from Kenya!
So... an Airbus will allow a pilot to land with the gear up?
Any plane will, yes
So an Airbus will let you land gear up? Strictly speaking no, that is why the gear and GPWS warnings sounded. Like any plane, an Airbus cannot prevent a pilot commanded CFIT, which is what this technically was.
Christ on a bike, what is it with Asia and dodgy airlines. Even when you listen to the ATC recordings, there's hardly any professionalism sounding from anyone.
There doesn’t seem much coverage on this incident, so thanks very much for making this well researched and presented video.
Love your videos 😀💜🥰
Great video!
Thanks for sharing. 😉👌🏻
i love Nord VPN's new hip hop and Taylor Swift filters Like Ad Block Plus but for bad music.
PIA and Pilots (licence) seems nothing has changed. How many actually have proper accreditation.
I love you
Why would you retract the gear, especially when you intended to land, when you were going to fast? Having the gear down creates drag that helps slow you down and they needed it for landing anyway. How could they have ignored the landing/gear up alert too? I wonder if they panicked but the CVR would've picked that up.
the controllers were just as much to blame for this as the pilots. they're also aware of what a stabilized approach is. they should have rescinded their landing clearance after giving them the chance twice to orbit and still being un-stabilized. i'm sorry but this airline is mickey mouse. there's been a number of crashes involving PIA and clearly there's a lot of corruption in the airline to allow pilots with fake licenses fly. due diligence has not been carried out.
The pilot was also fasting during ramadan, i don't know why everyone overlook this fact.
Taxi for Barbara innit. Did dey put da wheels down man? Me don't ramemba dem put da wheels down innit, day fly like to fast innit?
This crash happened a couple streets behind my house 😢 so scary and this serves as a reminder that we never know when we are gonna leave this earth so we must cherish our lives while we still have them
Edit: after an investigation pakistan's aviation authority layed off 20% of their pilots because it was discovered they had forged their licences
On the pictures from the accident you could see the L4 door stuck into a car and that really hit me hard as i’m often seated there.
I work for a Middle Eastern carrier and the management culture is really similar to sub-continent airlines in some aspects.
My personal hypothesis is that the due to the pandemic and personal issues due to the ongoing pandemic, both pilots were in extreme pressure not to “screw up” and get themselves fired as it had already started back then.
A missed approach, orbit or mistake could’ve been more than enough fuel for management to let them go during those times. You could argue that safety is always priority, but they will always find a way to screw you over if they look hard enough and they have the goal.
Regarding the license issues, it definitely was a thing to look at, but with all that flying time, you could argue that they knew what they were doing. How many people without a licence can drive a car better than those who just got theirs? Still not an excuse, but also a thing to keep in mind as flying, licensed or not after such a long time, is muscle memory and following procedures on which buttons to press. From a new second officer screwing over, yes, from a captain, not such a strong case of the license being the sole cause of the incident
0:20 The narrator states "Will they make it to the runway?........The incomprehensible crash of PIA flight 8303"
You can't crash and then make it to the runway, so logically you must first make it to the runway and then crash.
They should have listened to the ATC. There should be a penalty for not following an air traffic controller's instructions if any type of incident occurs in not following their instructions.
Pakistan should investigate inside their airlines pilots licensing procedure. Most of them are not even qualified to become a pilot.
Thanks Airspace & wishing you happy holidays & a very good New Year & a big thank you for your content !
Thank you and a happy 2023 too!
The really incomprehensible thing is that youtube has stopped recommending your videos.
right?
One thing has me confused? Did the Landing Gear ever actually physically deploy on that first approach? One of the alarms sounding in the background of some radio calls was the Landing Gear Overspeed Alarm. The plane wont let the gear deploy above a certain airspeed as it woullld rip the landing gear doors off. I thiught the assumption has been they attempted to lower the gear, got an error, pulled the lever back and forgot about it?
Yes, it deployed successfully
1/3 Pakistani Pilots wer not real pilots? glad they found out lol
Another excellent video, so well narrated with precise explanations. Thank you for this video, Happy New Year to you
thank you, and happy new year to you too!
As a side note, on another channel covering this crash, it was pointed out that if they had simply let the plane slide along the ground and not tried to go around, they all probably would have survived not to mention avoiding ground casualties.
most probably, yes
The pilots never heard of a simple procedure called a go around ?
Thank you Chris for a brilliant presentation. Best wishes, and many safe hours aloft for 2023!
Thank you so much, and a happy new year to you too!
There's pilot error and there's pilot buffoonery. Guess which one this is.
Earned a new sub loved your narration 🎉
Hip hop & Taylor Swift…. Agreed, minor disaster. Great segue!
They should not have made the impossible turn
PIA has never been on my bucket list.
May the pilot and the entire bogus airline rot in hell forever
clearly you havent seen the other shenanigans that happen in Pakistan
I closely followed this crash. The Captain had clocked more than 17000 hours and was pilot monitoring. Upon departure from origin airport he questioned ATC about the runway lights. When the flight was cleared to land, there were all the aural warnings like overspeed, gear, sink rate etc buzzing in the cockpit. The pilots extended the landing gear and intercepted the ILS from above(high) and then retracted the landing gear probably by mistake and then extended the gear again which didn’t extend due to overspeed and they continued the approach without visually checking gear-down lights. The aircraft touched down on its engines and this was the first mistake followed by another mistake of going-around in a full circuit pattern for RWY 25L instead of a teardrop on opposite RWY 07L or RWY 07R. Also, an ATC transcript is missing here where the ATC asked the pilot whether the second approach will be a belly landing. Lastly, the engines flamed out and they did a short approach. The aircraft was on final RWY25L which had threshold closer by around 500ft than RWY25R threshold which was ahead but had buildings on the short final. Had the pilots analyzed this risk moved to a bit right then would have undershot the RWY 25R but could have landed on an empty field instead of crashing upon buildings. Task saturation and complacency I believe.
Remember, every landing is a go-around with an option to land.
I'm not sure how in-depth the final report was studied, but the pilots indeed put the landing gear lever down prior to landing. But because they were attempting to land the plane way out of a stabilized approach speed (above 260 ias), the air bus by design did not allow the gear to be extended but instead provide a continuous beep warning to the pilots, which can incidentally be heard in the background during some of the ATC tapes.
I'm having trouble getting my head around this one. If the gear isn't down, aren't the pilots eardrums assaulted by a continuous, blaring, impossible-to-override horn? Hard to ignore, I'd have thought, even with other alerts sounding off.
A question that entered my mind during this is what authority do ATC normally operate in situations such as these? Do they have a specific mandate to refuse landing clearance if a pilot is not approaching correctly or is this responsibility, ultimately squarely on pilots.
The ATC clearly had all the expertise and information to see that their approach wasn't safe, would a different ATC team in a different country have responded much more firmly from the beginning?
I note that you said that ATC did "order" them to go around but in the end gave clearance. Did they not refuse an ATC instruction and thus jeopardize their pilot's license?