I heard that the banning of larger airplanes was a judge who found landing distances on the internet, and decided that the runway couldn't take those planes. Obviously a judge who knew nothing about flying, as those numbers are based on gross weight and some general conditions, whereas actual performance is based on very specific numbers based on the actual conditions. I heard 6300' is the length of the runway--not long, but certainly sufficient most of the time for 737/A320 type aircraft. Sounds like flawed logic that led to the closure.
The runway condition, on the hand, sounds like a legitimate issue. They had just re-surfaced, but hadn't yet grooved the runway. This sounds like the much bigger issue, based on the limited info I've heard.
Either way very tragic.
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