Narrative:

Upon approach to det; I was flying at 3;000 ft. Detroit approach gave me vectors direct to detroit city airport. About 7 miles back; I could not spot the airport. The tower light was not visible. As I got closer; ATC gave me vectors for right hand pattern and a visual approach. I still could not see the runway. I was cleared visual approach runway 15. As I entered a right downwind; I still could not see the runway; I informed ATC. I was instructed to switch to tower frequency. The tower controller put the lights on full. I still could not see the airport. I was finally able to make out runway 25/07; but a majority of the runway lights were not light or burned out. I was finally able to make out some what of the runway; and then I saw the end of runway 15. Coming in on approach was extremely difficult to make out the airport due to the burned out runway lights. As I turned final; I could barely make out the runway since numerous lights were burned out. At least the PAPI's were functional and I was able to make a safe landing without incident and with the control tower's assistance with me.

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: C172 vectored for a visual approach to Runway 15 at DET reported that the runway was very difficult to identify because of numerous burned out runway lights.

Narrative: Upon approach to DET; I was flying at 3;000 FT. Detroit Approach gave me vectors direct to Detroit City Airport. About 7 miles back; I could not spot the airport. The Tower light was not visible. As I got closer; ATC gave me vectors for right hand pattern and a visual approach. I still could not see the runway. I was cleared visual approach Runway 15. As I entered a right downwind; I still could not see the runway; I informed ATC. I was instructed to switch to Tower frequency. The Tower Controller put the lights on full. I still could not see the airport. I was finally able to make out Runway 25/07; but a majority of the runway lights were not light or burned out. I was finally able to make out some what of the runway; and then I saw the end of Runway 15. Coming in on approach was extremely difficult to make out the airport due to the burned out runway lights. As I turned final; I could barely make out the runway since numerous lights were burned out. At least the PAPI's were functional and I was able to make a safe landing without incident and with the Control Tower's assistance with me.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of July 2013 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.