According to Immanuel's website, pilots flying into LaGuardia once used this church, with its lit-up steeple, as a landmark on the approach to Runway 22. One night, when the lights failed to turn on, the church got a call from the airport, asking if they still intended to light the steeple in the future.
LaGuardia is one of the few airports that still employs visual approaches, in which pilots use landmarks instead of instruments to guide their planes in. Here's a cockpit video of the scenic Expressway Visual approach to Runway 31.
Day 375
Immanuel Lutheran Church
January 8th, 2013
Neat! I think this was the approach that the most recent flight to LGA I was on took. I’m not sure because it was pretty cloudy, but I know we started by Coney Island and went towards Prospect Park, and then there was a stretch of cloud and fog/I couldn’t really tell where we were, but that bit at the end with the turn toward the clock-tower (that’s the U-Haul/old zipper factory, yes?) is definitely what we did.
Yes, that is the old zipper factory!
That was a fun ride!