Haha ok, never flown around the Portland area and dont know too much of the weather patterns there but its highly unlikely the weather would change so rapidly that he could prove he had the required vis to land because before and after the accident RVR values were still not near what was required. While listening to the archive, there was a plane that landed and couldnt even see a taxiway to exit. Never flown or seen this type of situation but if you cant see a taxiway while your on the runway, sounds pretty bad.
How did the airplane that successfully landed get in? Was it CAT II or CAT III equipped? Or was it CAT I and the visibility improved momentarily? I didn't listen to the archive so I don't know.
Regarding your comment about the weather changing rapidly, in my experience it is not so much of a rapid change but rather a gentle fluctuation in visibility and ceiling that could make or break the approach. Consider this:
On my first flight down to White Plains, NY, two Tuesdays ago the weather at HPN was technically below minimums due to fog and low ceilings, but aircraft were getting in when I was vectored to the ILS. How can that be, you ask? Recall that on the ILS if a pilot spots the approach lights right at minimums s/he is allowed another 100 feet descent and that is what was happening on this day. It should be noted that the aircraft getting in were two-pilot, multi-engine aircraft with excellent autopilots, no doubt.
On my first attempt I was hand flying the Bonanza down the ILS and managed to track both glideslope and localizer pretty much right on for the first part of the approach. However, as I got to within 500 feet above the DH, I started to drift a bit high. This was most likely caused by my distraction of now splitting my time between the gauges and looking out the window. The winds were also a stiff right crosswind so the aircraft was in a 15 degree crab, meaning that the runway would not be straight out the windshield but rather off to the left. When I hit the DH I could not see either the approach lights or the runway so I executed a missed.
My alternate airport, a 20 minute flight south of HPN, was reporting a 1,000 foot ceiling and 3 mile vis, so getting in on their ILS would not be an issue. Remaining fuel was 2.5 hours with another hour of reserve. Considering that I was a tad high on my first approach and distracted by the constant swap between inside gauges and looking for the runway I realized it was not the perfectly flown ILS needed for the conditions. Taking into account the PIREPS of the last two aircraft that got in by first spotting the approach lights right at minimums, I opted to try one more approach. If this attempt were not successful it would be off to the alternate.
To stack the deck in my favor on this second attempt I let the autopilot fly the approach while I spent more time monitoring the altimeter and looking outside for the approach lights. Of course the AP flew a perfect ILS and this time, within 50 feet of the DH I spotted the approach lights. At that point I disengaged the AP and hand flew the descent another 80 or so feet down when the runway came into view. Landing at that point was assured.
The point of this anecdote is to demonstrate that a number of variables goes into the decision of making a second approach attempt and that the pilot is really the only one able to make that decision. I will certainly concede that the weather in this story was not as low as the weather of the METARS posted here, but if a pilot is proficient and fuel plentiful an ILS to a missed should be a non-event assuming the approach is flown as charted.