[expatpat]

failed to properly coordinate their landing based on a seldom used obsolete beacon instead of the up-to-date system they were used to

The type of approach used is determined by Air Traffic Control, not the pilots. The pilot can ask for a specific approach, but the ATC has the final say.

[Al Simmons]

Look - I am not a pilot nor do I pretend to remember, off the cuff, 10 years later, the exact terminology - but I read the USAF accident report, and it jibes with everything that I know first hand...

The idea that Croatian commandoes would kill a US Cabinet official - when we had a US Army search & rescue team on the scene a few hours later - riding in a Chinook in over the mountains (still get chills even recalling the trip in that weather) - is too insane to warrant any further comment.

[Rokke]

"The type of approach used is determined by Air Traffic Control, not the pilots. The pilot can ask for a specific approach, but the ATC has the final say."

But DoD pilots are not authorized to fly approaches that haven't been previously approved by the DoD. That was the case here. It didn't matter what ATC cleared them to do. They weren't authorized to shoot the approach in the first place.