Friends have been asking me about the Boeing 737 that ran off the runway approximately 9:40 pm last night at the Jacksonville Naval Air Station. Here’s the METAR:
KNIP 040153Z 13003KT 2SM +TSRA BR SCT010 BKN021CB OVC035 23/21 A2998 RMK AO2 TSB04 SLP149 FRQ LTGIC OHD TS OHD MOV E T1 SET P0074 T02280206
That’s May 4 at 01:53 GMT. Subtract four hours and we get to 9:53 pm local time, roughly when the crash occurred.
The rain wasn’t all that heavy because the visibility was still 2 statute miles. There was essentially no wind (13003KT = 3 knots from 130, favoring runway 10, which is what was being used). The notes are definitely scary, e.g., “frequent lightning overhead thunderstorm overhead,” but perhaps a Florida-based crew has become inured to this.
The 9000′ runway length is a little longer than standard for a 737.
What wasn’t standard? Unlike almost any U.S. civilian airport that receives commercial jet traffic, the runway wasn’t grooved (compare KNIP to nearby KJAX, for example, or even our flight school’s home airport KBED). A truly flat paved surface makes hydroplaning much more likely. In fact, at our Delta Airlines regional jet subsidiary we didn’t adjust landing distance for rain on a grooved runway. A grooved runway was always considered “dry”.