Whole thing is absolutely a goat rope. I am certainly not making excuses for the aircrew either - obviously the pilot in command is responsible for this flight... and where it ends up. The reason I asked that question earlier was because I had read an AP release stating that ATC had already been cleared. Im also familiar with the 7110.65 and was asking for an interpretation because it doesn't specify when the cleared to land & not in sight procedure comes into play. I imagine that would be more a -250 thing on the AF side, but this aint an Air Force base.
That said, I admittedly have myself been misquoted in the media (slightly embarrassing) but I wanted to hear thoughts from the peanut gallery first.
On a side note - seriously, no cheesy C-17 jokes yet?