Originally Posted by
SailorOrion
Ok, from an engineer's point of view, I'm asking myself on how to prevent such incidents in the future. The only times I have seen a cockpit of a commercial airliner at night was in simulators (EDDF for example), so I'm trying to imagine.
From what I read here, 29 seems to be used if the crosswind component for a landing on 22 would be too high.
What I think contributed to the problem is that:
-The crew were rather busy with the "wind problem"
-They're coming after sunset
-They're flying a visual approach to runway 29
-So they have to find the runway among thousands of lights (taxiways, the turnpike, whatever). A runway that doesn't even have an ILS (probably because an ILS approach would interfere with KLGA approaches), no touchdown zone lighting and no approach lighting whatsoever.
So why does a runway, that is mostly used in adverse conditions, even lack a simple approach lighting?
SailorOrion
I suggest adding to contributing factors:
-Short final approach
-Clearing the New Jersey Turnpike at about 100 ft. altitude, then having to get down near the beginning of the runway which is not probably more than 500 feet or so from the Turnpike.
-A big question is why did they make a quick correction to the right as they were crossing the Turnpike to align themselves with Taxiway Z, rather than continue straight and land on 29?