Narrative:

Due to staffing; fai's TRACON is closed from late evening to early morning until further notice. Fai is staffed as a VFR tower and zan has the approach control duties. Zan coordinated that aircraft X would be the next arrival and aircraft Y would likely get aircraft X in sight to follow; both on visual approaches. Later when the aircraft were within radar coverage and on the d-brite I could see that aircraft X and aircraft Y were a tie to runway 1L. Aircraft X was on a base from the east and aircraft Y was on a straight-in from the south. Aircraft Y should have been first to arrive; but with a vector and/or airspeed adjustment either aircraft could have been first. Zan gave them to my frequency when aircraft Y was about 20 miles south and aircraft X about 15 miles east. Aircraft Y came over to my frequency worried about how the sequence was going to play out. I gave aircraft Y ground speed information on aircraft X and a suggestion to widen out. When they got closer; aircraft Y opted to pass above and behind aircraft X then enter the downwind to land opposite direction on runway 19R. Zan should not have transferred the aircraft to my frequency prior to establishing a solid sequence. The aircraft Y pilots should not have taken the follow aircraft X and cleared visual approach clearance. In the dark and 20-25 miles from aircraft X; the aircraft Y pilots had little depth perception.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: FAI Local Controller described flawed ZAN sequencing/spacing event with two arrival aircraft; alleging ZAN Controller failed to adequately complete the visual approach process.

Narrative: Due to staffing; FAI's TRACON is closed from late evening to early morning until further notice. FAI is staffed as a VFR Tower and ZAN has the Approach Control duties. ZAN coordinated that Aircraft X would be the next arrival and Aircraft Y would likely get Aircraft X in sight to follow; both on visual approaches. Later when the aircraft were within radar coverage and on the D-BRITE I could see that Aircraft X and Aircraft Y were a tie to Runway 1L. Aircraft X was on a base from the east and Aircraft Y was on a straight-in from the south. Aircraft Y should have been first to arrive; but with a vector and/or airspeed adjustment either aircraft could have been first. ZAN gave them to my frequency when Aircraft Y was about 20 miles south and Aircraft X about 15 miles east. Aircraft Y came over to my frequency worried about how the sequence was going to play out. I gave Aircraft Y ground speed information on Aircraft X and a suggestion to widen out. When they got closer; Aircraft Y opted to pass above and behind Aircraft X then enter the downwind to land opposite direction on Runway 19R. ZAN should not have transferred the aircraft to my frequency prior to establishing a solid sequence. The Aircraft Y pilots should not have taken the follow Aircraft X and cleared visual approach clearance. In the dark and 20-25 miles from Aircraft X; the Aircraft Y pilots had little depth perception.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.