Originally Posted by 742Dash

Not to comment on this specific accident, but to take the opportunity to rant on the general subject.

The landing distance assessment policies that came out of the 2005 Midway accident are a good thing, but they have been taken too far in that they give the illusion of precision when precise data is exactly what is missing.

And the that uncertainty is what needs to be front and center in everyone's mind. Punching runway conditions into the ACARS and getting a landing distance predicted to 1 foot accuracy is absurd, especially when the runway is contaminated and the temperature is near freezing.

What is needed is actually the opposite of precision. A wariness of runway condition reports, decisions on each landing regarding trade-offs between techniques that effect controllability and stopping distance (often in conflict), and blunt discussion in training of the strengths/weaknesses of each aircraft type. In other words exactly the type of training that does not happen in this world of home based training via CBT, contract instructors and canned sim profiles.