Originally Posted by
deSitter
mm43, I'm more interested in the sight angle of that bridge from UPS just before the troubles. I have a crazy idea that they may have mistook stalled morning rush hour traffic on this bridge - a mix of red and white lights - for the PAPI. The highway stands at a rather acute angle to the runway so this is possible.
Using Google earth, I compute the following:
highway altitude:+/- 640ft
Mrs Benson pine tree altitude: +/-830ft
distance from highway to pine tree: +/-14200ft
That makes for an angle of less than one degree (0.77°).
The highway altitude is somewhat below runway southern threshold (660).
If they could see the highway, it must have seemed awfully high on their windshield...