Narrative:

We were cleared for a night visual approach into cou by approach after we picked up the runway around 12 or so miles out. Once we were slowed and dirty we were handed off to the tower for our landing clearance. The tower said that he was having some problems with the lights and asked us to use caution. We had all the lights except that the actual side lights appeared funny. It appeared as the right side lights were on maximum intensity and the left side lights were very dim. We continued because the runway was in view and it was a clear night. When we were closer in we picked up all the runway markings including the side stripes; the number; and threshold. It wasn't until after landing that we realized that perhaps the lights on the left side of the runway might have never been on. The tower was not to sure of which lights were malfunctioning as he asked us after we were stopped which lights appeared to be out to us. The landing was uneventful as we had the entire runway a few miles out due to the clear night. Cause; the threats were definitely the short notice and the need to make split second decisions on the landing. Other factors were also the fact that we were landing at night with some of the airport equipment malfunctioning. Looking back at the situation now I believe the proper action would have been to execute a go around and probably land at another airport. The company trains us to take our time; use CRM; and to never be afraid to go-around when things just do not look correct. This event was really out of the control of the company and it is more something I could do better in the future.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier night time arrival into COU landed with one side of the runway lights inoperative. ATC indicted a loss of some lights but was unsure of the exact location.

Narrative: We were cleared for a night visual approach into COU by Approach after we picked up the runway around 12 or so miles out. Once we were slowed and dirty we were handed off to the Tower for our landing clearance. The Tower said that he was having some problems with the lights and asked us to use caution. We had all the lights except that the actual side lights appeared funny. It appeared as the right side lights were on maximum intensity and the left side lights were very dim. We continued because the runway was in view and it was a clear night. When we were closer in we picked up all the runway markings including the side stripes; the number; and threshold. It wasn't until after landing that we realized that perhaps the lights on the left side of the runway might have never been on. The Tower was not to sure of which lights were malfunctioning as he asked us after we were stopped which lights appeared to be out to us. The landing was uneventful as we had the entire runway a few miles out due to the clear night. Cause; the threats were definitely the short notice and the need to make split second decisions on the landing. Other factors were also the fact that we were landing at night with some of the airport equipment malfunctioning. Looking back at the situation now I believe the proper action would have been to execute a go around and probably land at another airport. The company trains us to take our time; use CRM; and to never be afraid to go-around when things just do not look correct. This event was really out of the control of the company and it is more something I could do better in the future.

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.