Pct vectored an air carrier for a night visual to ric runway 20 with no precision approach back up. ...

Attributes
ACN	1119048
Time
Date	201309
Local Time Of Day	0001-0600
Place
Locale Reference	RIC.Airport
State Reference	VA
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Widebody Transport
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Final Approach Initial Approach
Route In Use	Visual Approach Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy

Narrative:

During approach to ric; we requested the ILS runway 02. The winds were reported as calm. Runways 16/34 were under construction so there was no ILS to those runways. Potomac approach would not approve the ILS runway 02. We were vectored to the visual approach to runway 20. We were able to back up the visual approach with the GPS runway 20. If winds are not a factor; there should be no reason not to utilize runways with precision approach guidance. Especially when flights are operating at night. A freight carrier just had an incident in bhm where ATC closed the main precision approach runway and vectored the flight to an unfamiliar short runway with no precision approach guidance. ATC seems to believe there is no difference between flying at night versus during the day. Crews flying at night need all the technology available to operate safely.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: PCT vectored an air carrier for a night visual to RIC Runway 20 with no precision approach back up. Runway 2 with a precision approach was available but a request for that approach was denied.

Narrative: During approach to RIC; we requested the ILS Runway 02. The winds were reported as calm. Runways 16/34 were under construction so there was no ILS to those runways. Potomac Approach would not approve the ILS Runway 02. We were vectored to the visual approach to Runway 20. We were able to back up the visual approach with the GPS Runway 20. If winds are not a factor; there should be no reason not to utilize runways with precision approach guidance. Especially when flights are operating at night. A freight carrier just had an incident in BHM where ATC closed the main precision approach runway and vectored the flight to an unfamiliar short runway with no precision approach guidance. ATC seems to believe there is no difference between flying at night versus during the day. Crews flying at night need all the technology available to operate safely.

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.

Pct vectored an air carrier for a night visual to ric runway 20 with no precision approach back up. Runway 2 with a precision approach was available but a request for that approach was denied.