Originally Posted by
WHBM
That's not really what they saw, they were lined up on the taxyway as we know; this image is lined up on the runway. Different perspective. Would be good to see it.presumably the X loses its prominence the more to one side of it you are, likewise the approach lighting.
I have yet to see any approach lighting system that becomes unrecognizable as such outside a ~5 degree or so slice from the threshold. Most unidirectional lights would be very much still visible when lined up on the taxi way at 4nm or 10nm or probably even further out. They'd only be hard to see from very close in or at significantly wider angles, think 45 degrees of centerline. My homebase has some of the hardest to see unidirectional ALS I have encountered, and even that becomes very recognizable once you are within those 45 degrees.
I am not saying no one can make a mistake, or discounting human factors and fatigue, I mean I've made my fair share of ****-ups. But I do think that it requires a significant amount of fatigue or disconnect from situational awareness to miss those approach lights, even being lined up on the taxiway, so slightly to the right. Just discounting the image as "well this isn't exactly what they saw" is a bit silly. If you've been flying into larger airports for a while you should have no problem pulling up a mental image of what it would look like if you transposed yourself a bit to the right.