When a westbound flight lands at PNI, they normally land on Runway 9, in an east direction. Most of the time the plane flys west on the north side of the island and makes a left hand U-turn to land in an eastward direction. However, looking at FR24, about 10% of the time, the plane flys over the island, to the south of the airport, and makes a right hand U-turn.

What is the reason for the variance. I'm assuming that PNI has no control of any kind, and there can't be any other traffic in the area. I've always assumed that planes try and fly over water at low altitudes when they can to avoid noise pollution over populated areas, but I could be wrong. Is this pilot discression?


Normal

Why do this instead?