Narrative:

I want to bring a potential hazard to your attention. During recent storms in the bay area; we have utilized runway 12R ILS at sjc on numerous occasions. The recently completed stadium has a sign on top of the stadium; which when lit at night in poor visibility conditions; appears exactly like a PAPI; being a horizontal bar which is red on the left and white on the right. It appears as if you are on the vertical path but off course to the right of the runway. While my crew; per company procedure; remained on the ILS guidance had no issue; both of us had to do a double check to be sure as it appears that real. It doesn't become apparent that this is a sign until you actually pass the stadium. While following procedure kept us on course; the visual trickery of this sign could be very easily mistaken for the PAPI for runway 12R under poor visibility conditions leading an unsuspecting crew to mistakenly correct to the left while descending and subsequently put them on a collision course with the stadium itself. It would be worthy of consideration to issue an alert regarding this issue.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Pilot reported a local stadium's lights could be mistaken for VASI when SJC Runway 12R is in use; especially at night in poor visibility.

Narrative: I want to bring a potential hazard to your attention. During recent storms in the Bay Area; we have utilized Runway 12R ILS at SJC on numerous occasions. The recently completed stadium has a sign on top of the stadium; which when lit at night in poor visibility conditions; appears exactly like a PAPI; being a horizontal bar which is red on the left and white on the right. It appears as if you are on the Vertical Path but off course to the right of the runway. While my Crew; per Company procedure; remained on the ILS guidance had no issue; both of us had to do a double check to be sure as it appears that real. It doesn't become apparent that this is a sign until you actually pass the stadium. While following procedure kept us on course; the visual trickery of this sign could be very easily mistaken for the PAPI for Runway 12R under poor visibility conditions leading an unsuspecting crew to mistakenly correct to the left while descending and subsequently put them on a collision course with the stadium itself. It would be worthy of consideration to issue an alert regarding this issue.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site 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.