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The published altitudes weren't wrong at KBDL when the AAL MD80 hit the trees
near the stepdown fix.


The hit obstacles because: They pilot descended over 300 feet below what the
altimeter would lead him to believe the MDA was, and they had a nearly hour old
altimeter setting which put them another 40 feet down. The trees were also a little
taller than the FAA had accounted for when they designed the appraoch.

They were well beyond the stepdown fix (about halfway to the runway). It's not clear
what the stepdown fix had to do with it. If they'd flown a similar apporach at an airport
with an 800 foot MDH, they'd have still hit obstacles.

The NTSB did make some comments regarding continuous descents rather than step
down fixes, but I don't think that it would have helped in this case. If you look at the
profile view actually flown (which has a 3.5 degree glideslope superimposed over it),
you find that if they had stopped at the MDA they would have gotten there only half
a mile further out than they would have done on a constant descent angle.