Originally Posted by dayone
An obvious and ill-informed exaggeration. The left is more likely but it really depends on wind, weather and sometimes "wings" (type of aircraft).
Sometimes they make an approach north to the west of Manhattan and then a right-turn back around. That affords some stunning close-up views of the Statue of Liberty and the skyline. The pax on the right get the first (better) view and then the folks on the left get the landing view (looking to the west).
It's an exaggeration, true, certainly less than 99.99%, obviously. But hardly ill informed. All standard published approaches have Manhattan visible from left side, none of them do not have Manhattan off the left side.
There are plenty of non-standard things that happen, including what you mention above. But check the traffic patterns for NYC airspace. I do fly a plane in this airspace regularly, I'm not just making stuff up. If a real airline pilot wants to make me look dumb though, hell, would be curious to hear otherwise.