General Discussion

This is why you need to be careful with what comes out of the media.

“The airport base has radar”. This confuses me. Bases generally indicate military, but airports themselves might also have radar. I’d expect the Air Force base in Minot to have radar of course, but the fact that it’s a VFR tower leads me to suspect that Minot airport does not. Being a contract tower, it’s actually run by a private business, not by the FAA.

I worked for 25 years and never once vectored anyone for a visual approach. That’s a specious idea right there. When I started, we could still vector to VFR on top, which might lead to a visual approach.

My point is there’s quite a bit about this story that’s incorrect. I consider that the norm in our media today.