By the end of 2000, less than six months after their arrival,...

By the end of 2000, less than six months after their arrival, the three pilots on the East Coast were simulating flights on large jets.

"To me that is extensive experience when wanting to purely turn a plane around and head for a target."

LOL!!!

Are you freeking kidding!

They HAD ZERO 'experience"... That is a total distortion!
All they did was >play< with a flight simulator.. That is completely different to flying an actual commercial jet such as a boeing 737 or airbus 321 etc..

Otherwise Joe Bloggs can go do 3 months on a flight simulator and all of a sudden do stunt moves on a jetstar plane!

Gimmie a break.. Per-Leeze.

If you are a common sense kind of person, you would normally scoff at your own logic.