approach into Ponape, (Central Pacific), it was a requirement to follow a line of white lights as they curved
What year was that? I flew into Ponape (now Pohnpei) many times during the period 1976-1988 and there were no lead-in lights then. An Air Nauru pilot reported that the Ponape DME was working in reverse on his approach which fortunately was VMC. The FAA hurriedly checked out his report and sure enough it was true. It made the DME arc a bit trickly to fly...
Warming to the subject..at Tarawa a "new" VASIS appeared but not NOTAMMED. An F28 pilot landing at TRW (Bonriki International Airport) followed the VASIS light signals and finished up very low while still showing on glide slope. More reports came in and it was obvious something was a bit fishy about the new VASIS. An inspection revealed the "VASIS" was an antiquated apparatus of two red painted pillar box structures. The local DCA admitted it had never been flight tested but that Air Pacific said that "it looked OK!"
After strong representations from Air Nauru pilots who flew 737 and 727's into Bonriki, the truth came out. Some enterprising character had sold the locals an early crop-dusting type visual system. For several months the red boxes lay slowly rusting away in the cargo shed until a visiting FAA inspector from Guam happened to call in as he had heard about this mysterious "VASIS".
His jaw dropped when he saw the light boxes in the cargo hold and he said he would like to buy them and place them in an aviation museum in USA. Eventually the bits and pieces vanished - who knows where. Maybe it suffered the same fate as war relics of the Tarawa battle in 1943 where locals used long discarded US marine Garand rifle barrels or Japanese rifles to use with cooking pots over fires.