Originally Posted by
TangoAlphad
.................. Not something a crew would be doing short final to land unless they were having legitimate radio issues and even then PF would be eyes on the runway/instruments with PM perhaps distracted flicking switches and forgetting to maybe look at the tower but in their mind if they were cleared well they were cleared... why look for a light signal? ..................
You are right, especially on a large airport like SFO, Tower may be at a big angle from pilots' line of sight.
A suggestion, why can't we have the red flare thing installed at the threshold for active runways. If needed, could be triggered remotely from tower for the required runway?