Originally Posted by
flarepilot
reason for call: runway in sight
1. pilot thought runway was in sight
2. pilot heard sink rate alarm and said what he said a thousand times before in a pavlovian response.
3. pilots lied so that recorder would befuddle ntsb
dozens of pages about the details...time to go straight to the problem...if you are doing a non precision approach you have to BE CAREFUL as you may get DECEIVED and make a big mistake.
Of the options only number 1 makes any sense. The crew were not trying to ace a check ride they were on a real night non-precision approach with terrain close beneath them.
So - the question is were the runway lights in sight but distorted in some way causing the crew to wish to descend more rapidly, or was some other set of lights thought to be the runway lights?