Normasars:
Have you been to Launy in the dark? I don't care how good the a/c lights are mate, LT is " the black hole of calcutta" at night. Blind Freddy would know the lights weren't on(if this was actually the case) down there.
Yes, many times, but I believe you miss my point in the effectiveness of the landing lights on modern large aircraft... it is close to daylight in front of the a/c and I am therefore suggesting that it would not be that hard to miss it if the lights were in fact not on, given other possible workload issues that occur around that point.
Mind you, I do believe there should be appropriate procedures in place for such locations where the pilots must activate the lights, and of course they must in such cases be followed. It is a fact of life that RPT jet pilots do not get that much exposure to such locations or procedures, which only increases the chances of such an occurrence.
The bottom line of my post is that I don't believe we are dealing with an occurrence that is isolated or rare, but in fact takes place more often than we might think. We must look at the system and procedures and not knee-jerk by blaming the pilots!
