Well, lets see...this very same scenario happened to me about two years ago at Cairo, poor visibility due to rising sand, 48 minutes holding (had stacks of fuel, so no problem...lots of other airplanes diverted however), final vectors, cleared for approach, call the tower.
Nothing.
Called the tower again.
Nothing.
Now two miles final in our big three engine jet, called Cairo Ground.
Ground says....'LN202, cleared to land.'
Between the time that the approach controller had released us to call the tower, and we called, a backhoe had sliced through a big electrical cable, thereby failing all the tower frequencies, the ILS, the NDB, the VOR and much of the airport lighting...leaving only ground control on a standby frequency, active.
The ground controller told me it was battery powered.
Approaching the parking bay, the ground controller wanted to know how we found the airport, as all the nav aids were unserviceable.
'Honeywell HT9100 GPS' I told him.
Superb units these, supremely accurate.
IFR stand-alone approved, enroute, terminal, approach.
Very handy to have.
Last edited by 411A; 6th Jul 2007 at 06:48.