Captain
Final Approach
Landed in MMU last night after TEB was reported closed for an hour. MMU was closed when I diverted but was supposed to be back open in 10 minutes and we were about 15 away...perfect.
So, we shoot the ILS to 23 in heavy snow. We get close to mins and see nothing. I key the mike with a hundred feet to go or so and ask for full bright on the lights. Then all of a sudden black ground turn into approach lights!
They had the freaking lights off!
But that's not all. There was no report of snow on the runway from ATIS or Tower. I assumed the runway was clear as they had just reopened. Plowing the runway seemed logical to me and I didn't think to ask for a report. They did have a breaking report of 'fair' from a vehicle so I wasn't expecting a perfect runway...
We touch down in near white out condition with the snow and realize we're in at least 2 inches of snow. It was way more contamination than I was expecting having zero reports of snow on the runway.
We gave a breaking action report of 'poor' and tower seemed incredulous. Had to repeat it twice. Later in the FBO I heard they had raised it to 'fair', presumably from a vehicle. Then, 15 minutes later they closed the airport...snow removal couldn't keep up. Go figure.
I'm usually fine with MMU, but last night the seriously dropped the ball, IMO.
So, we shoot the ILS to 23 in heavy snow. We get close to mins and see nothing. I key the mike with a hundred feet to go or so and ask for full bright on the lights. Then all of a sudden black ground turn into approach lights!
They had the freaking lights off!
But that's not all. There was no report of snow on the runway from ATIS or Tower. I assumed the runway was clear as they had just reopened. Plowing the runway seemed logical to me and I didn't think to ask for a report. They did have a breaking report of 'fair' from a vehicle so I wasn't expecting a perfect runway...
We touch down in near white out condition with the snow and realize we're in at least 2 inches of snow. It was way more contamination than I was expecting having zero reports of snow on the runway.
We gave a breaking action report of 'poor' and tower seemed incredulous. Had to repeat it twice. Later in the FBO I heard they had raised it to 'fair', presumably from a vehicle. Then, 15 minutes later they closed the airport...snow removal couldn't keep up. Go figure.
I'm usually fine with MMU, but last night the seriously dropped the ball, IMO.
