They missed more than the landing gear. They were 5 miles out at 3,500'. ATC offered a vector to extend the approach. They rejected it, said they were on the ILS. From that point to get down on the ground, there could hardly have been time for the luxury of a checklist. Tragic and unnecessary.
Well, let's see: the first crash happened after the crew spent 12 minutes in the air fighting against a system they didn't have any reason to know existed; in the second, after getting notice of the system and instructions on how to deal with a runaway, by following those instructions only got exactly half that much time in the air before the crash. What have I missed?
Right. It worked until they extorted Boeing into the single AoA reliance that killed ~350 people and grounded the airplane, seemingly forever, all to avoid some sim time and a type rating change.
