A C172 instructor pilot reported that an air carrier pilot caused an unsafe situation when he increa...

Narrative:

I was working in the pattern with a student. I was communicating my position in the pattern and communicating with a freighter who was preparing for departure. An air carrier aircraft entered the general area and while I was on approach to the runway; the air carrier aircraft used his microphone to increase the runway lights to full intensity (7 clicks) from their low intensity condition (3 clicks) without first announcing or communicating on the CTAF. The shock of dealing with the runway light intensity being increased to full without warning creates a dangerous situation for the pilot in the aircraft about to land. There was continued talk on the CTAF between me and the freighter about this situation. I continued around the pattern again and departed without communicating my departure and the air carrier aircraft again increased the lighting intensity to full without first communicating! It was only after becoming established on the approach and inbound that he announced anything on the frequency. The short sighted behavior of the inbound pilot is setting the stage for an accident caused by the blinding of a pilot in the final stages of the landing process.the aeronautical information manual in 2-1-8-c tells how to change the lighting intensity of runway lights. I believe that it should also tell the pilot how to act responsibly by stating: 'before initiating or changing the intensity of airport lighting an inbound pilot should ascertain that another aircraft is not in the landing phase of flight at the destination airport.'

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A C172 Instructor Pilot reported that an air carrier pilot caused an unsafe situation when he increased the CTAF airport runway lights to their maximum intensity without warning while the C172 was on short final.

Narrative: I was working in the pattern with a student. I was communicating my position in the pattern and communicating with a freighter who was preparing for departure. An air carrier aircraft entered the general area and while I was on approach to the runway; the air carrier aircraft used his microphone to increase the runway lights to full intensity (7 clicks) from their low intensity condition (3 clicks) without first announcing or communicating on the CTAF. The shock of dealing with the runway light intensity being increased to full without warning creates a dangerous situation for the pilot in the aircraft about to land. There was continued talk on the CTAF between me and the freighter about this situation. I continued around the pattern again and departed without communicating my departure and the air carrier aircraft again increased the lighting intensity to full without first communicating! It was only after becoming established on the approach and inbound that he announced anything on the frequency. The short sighted behavior of the inbound pilot is setting the stage for an accident caused by the blinding of a pilot in the final stages of the landing process.The Aeronautical Information Manual in 2-1-8-c tells how to change the lighting intensity of runway lights. I believe that it should also tell the pilot how to act responsibly by stating: 'Before initiating or changing the intensity of airport lighting an inbound pilot should ascertain that another aircraft is not in the landing phase of flight at the destination airport.'

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.

Attributes
ACN	864265
Time
Date	200912
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZZZ.Airport
State Reference	US
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Night
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	Skyhawk 172/Cutlass 172
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Initial Approach
Route In Use	Other pattern
Flight Plan	None
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	Small Transport Low Wing 2 Recip Eng
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Route In Use	Other LOC-19 or RNAV-19
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Instructor
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP) Flight Crew Multiengine Flight Crew Instrument Flight Crew Flight Instructor
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 350 Flight Crew Total 24000
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Inflight Event / Encounter Other / Unknown

A C172 instructor pilot reported that an air carrier pilot caused an unsafe situation when he increased the CTAF airport runway lights to their maximum intensity without warning while the C172 was on short final.