Interesting. I wonder what the Asiana's descent profile looks like compared to the average and some outliers of other safe 777 landings at SFO. Did you generate that image? If not, what was the source?
I saw another image online, which compared the descent profiles of the past week of landings for the same flight. It showed that the July 6th landing was very close to the normal descent profile, and the July 5th landing was actually the outlier -- it had an unusually shallow glide slope.
Unfortunately I can't find the image right now, but perhaps someone else knows where it is and can provide it?
I stand by the parent having some useful data and analysis, and the OP being totally speculation, and in many respects uninformed.
- number 1, if you say 'loss of power', makes sense as a possible cause. if you say 'icing in the FOHE', it's like saying the murder was done with a yellow pistol. nothing points to that, no icing conditions (humidity/temperature), and of course not same engine as the previous plane crash attributed to that
- number 2, you can't be unaware of an ILS out of op, you wouldn't be cleared for the ILS approach, you wouldn't be using the ILS on visual approach, you would be cued there's no signal, you wouldn't hear the outer marker, etc. etc.
- number 3, auto-throttle, well again, if you say malfunction in power setting, OK could make sense, if you get as specific as 'confliction with autopilot/auto throttle' that's a purple pistol. Clearly not on cat3 autoland, you're basically saying pilot forgot to set throttle in the right configuration for visual approach and landing.
- number 4, pilot error/bad approach, can't argue with that. the story is what's interesting, eg undiagnosed walleye vision, ate the bad fish etc.
"- number 4, pilot error/bad approach, can't argue with that. the story is what's interesting"
Pilot induced oscillation on a really big scale. Coming in way too hot, slam down, whoops way over corrected, now coming in too low, whoops ran outta air and time to correct. Coming in way too hot, now are you better off trying to salvage or go around and get fired? Different nations airlines have differing policies on this...
water goes to the lowest point since it weighs more than fuel. then if it's not drained properly it gets sucked into the engine at the start of the flight. would be odd to discover water contamination after a long-haul flight.
I kind of assumed the FOHE was something that used external air, it wasn't water in the oil or the fuel. you descend through humid and coolish air ie not summer heat, water condenses and freezes as it's sucked through something from the pressure differential, or from actual icing conditions. but I could be wrong.
"PPrune[2] also had a guy weighing in saying that when he flew for a Korean carrier he saw guys try to do banana-shaped approaches to get a smoother landing. Wouldn't be the first time the Koreans have pulled something like this."
Unfortunately I can't find the image right now, but perhaps someone else knows where it is and can provide it?