I dont know Tom, count me in the minority perhaps.
I suppose government officials and the flying public would ask the same question rhetorically, how many more airframes...., until pilots learn to use proper judgement in conducting their operations?
The LS system in place may be all that is budgeted for service to remote locations and I am sure folks would be glad to keep the service the way it is and not suffer additional taxes and levies to improve the field, given the assumption that good judgement will be used by the pilots and the worse passengers might expect would be the inconvenience of a bus ride from an hour or two away, not a crash landing
In a perfect world, yes, all runways should have precision approaches but the resulting consequence of having non precision approaches should not be hull losses (pilots fault) but rather more diversions and missed approaches (added airline expense).
We have come a long way and the last couple decades and if you have flown internationally you would know just how good we have it in North America.
Off the cuff, sir, I totally agree with you but its just not that easy. As professional pilots we need to make proper decisions and that was not the case with this airframe loss.
jdawg, you can count me in with that minority.
I disagree with the conclusion you have reached, in the face of few available facts at present - it's too early in this one to castigate the crew. There could well have been a tech issue with the aircraft; we simply don't know yet. And the weather was bloody awful - Vis aside, I wouldn't discount windshear as a distinct possibility.
However, I am in total agreement with the rest of your sentiment - I don't agree with the complainants about approach aids. Pilots have been flying non-precision approaches for decades without major issues.
Frankly, if you can't fly a safe NPA to minimas, using the correct procedures, there is a serious competence / training / practice issue. The cardinal rule on a NPA is DO NOT descend below MDA until you have the required visual references. Pilots seem to have gotten far too used to precision approaches.