TAF for Hedland at the time was 9999 SCT030 that whole morning. It's 25 minutes flight time for an F100 from Paraburdoo. If the weather in Hedland was good then Karratha was almost certainly similar (can't find a previous TAF for Karratha) and Karratha is about 22 minutes from Paraburdoo.
From the AvHerald write up it was 60 minutes from the first approach to landing. So one can assume, even if the weather in YPBO was worse than forecast when realising this after the first approach a diversion to either YPPD or YPKA (with either a Tower or an AFIS available for more accurate weather) would have to have been the obvious decision. I would say a diversion would have been available after the second approach too. So why they remained in the area and seemed committed to land is a bit of a mystery.
Not discounting the numerous airports in the "Iron Triangle" less than 15 minutes away, one of which with a suitable TAF and aircraft successfully landing at could've been passed from ATC to the incident aircraft expeditiously.
Last edited by dr dre; 7th Dec 2021 at 08:41.