MrSandman said:
Minhad is 09/27 rwy direction. They would have been approaching it at nearly an exactly perpendicular track where they came from after being too high at Dubai. There is nothing at all around the runway there so it would stand out if the runway lights were on.
which is wrong on many levels...
Minhad is a poorly lit runway, with approach and runway lighting that is not easily visible even at close range when prefectly aligned, with the often poor visibility there.
As he himself says, the aircraft in question was due North, perpendicular to the Minhad runway, making the runway virtually invisible given the directional lighting employed.
Further, there is a camel racing track just 2-3 km SouthEast of Minhad, which is very brightly lit with omni-directional lights, making it highly visible from a considerable distance, easily 20 or 30km. This would have appeared much, MUCH brighter than Minhad.
It is generally accepted that these unfortunate pilots couldn't see their instruments or frequency displays barely inches from their faces. Had they been able to see ANYTHING out of the window, the brightly lit straights of the camel track might have offered them some hope of a welcoming runway, and tempted them that way, rather than the poorly lit Minhad runway, which would have been virtually invisible from their position even in the best circumstances.