Hiya
Stu - how the
are ya??..and that beautiful woman of your's?
Yep, happened before - probably in low vis conditions (rain, low cloud) when, even with the wipers working flat out (oh for the days of rain repellant - that stuff was truly
magic) - lights are a
fuzzy blur.
With an ILS, the centre line tracking is pretty accurate, but with a VOR DME approach - even using IRS - the proximity of the highway lights to the airport, at Mackay, is miniscule.
Add to that the fact that the FIRST lights the pilots are probably going to see are those of the MRD (Main Roads Dep't) and NOT the runway lights, and now the "come in spinner" factor is introduced.
Certainly DME and track miles should give a clue, however in sh!tty conditions
.5 or
.7 of a mile can easily go unnoticed, or dismissed as an error.
Anyway full marks to the boys in the Tower.
You weren't on, by any chance,
Binos???