How is it that they were able to see the runway but not an airplane of 95'
wingspan and 82' length sitting on it?

I don't know; I wasn't there. But it doesn't seem unreasonable to me
that an airplane could appear to blend into the runway under certain
conditions, that being one of them. Granted, they could "see" the
airplane, inasmuch as photons reflected from the plane entered the eye.
However, it might not have been recognized as an airplane if the
contrast were low enough, there was enough glare, the pilots were
focused on ("fixated on?") some other aspect of the approach (maybe the
theshold markings, the far end, the sight picture...) It would clearly
be pilot error, but it's possible for pilots to =make= errors, even
experienced ones.

Why would a pilot looking back see a
landing light in a darkening sky if the sun was brightly shining on the
approaching airplane?

That depends on the albedo of the airplane, the angle it presented to
the sun, the brightness of the landing light, and the exact direction it
was facing. It does not sound unreasonable to me, although I wasn't
there at that exact moment.

Jose
--
Quantum Mechanics is like this: God =does= play dice with the universe,
except there's no God, and there's no dice. And maybe there's no universe.
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