Wasn't there a recent(ish) crash in the Far East where plane overshot on the base leg when circling and hit terrain?
The accident occured at Pusan - a discussion is at
www.terps.com (I think)
If you lose visual contact on a circling approach the first thing is to turn towards the centre of the airport. The protected airspace is based on distances from the centre.
Not quite correct. The distances are based on the thresholds of the usable runway/s for the appropriate approach category.