Sorry to annoy you bomber,you are right, i'm not a pro but i find it kind of scarey that you guy's and girl's would fly into an airport without all the relevant information just because your company SOP's say so.
I did not mean to offend the Captain, surely he/she has the authority to call ATC to confirm something especially if you don't have the AIP for the airport.
Does the level/quality of information available vary for different airlines?
You can't blame the airfield, the document's were available,the area was defined correctly,they complied with the rules.Agreed, they could have had some kind of low barrier to better define the area but they were not required to. Is a crew required to have a copy of the AIP plate for the airfield?
May be things need reviewing so that area's are better marked and crews must have all the relevant information for destinations and diversions in their possession.
Not trying to offend, just a concerned beginner and frequent passenger.