fellow flyers:
I have not flown in europe, so my view is from the new side of the pond.
If this guy really went out on the runway in a car, more power to him.
I went to the control tower once to make sure the visibility was taken in a proper fashion...one airport in the USA requires 5 miles visibility to do the approach...as I was taking off I needed to know if I could get back in. I couldn't see ONE mile, but the company guy was happy to " call it 5".
we waited .
AS to closing an airport/aerodrome. Airports are seldom really closed because of weather. Usually, in the USA,it is up to airport managers to decide to close an airport, NOT ATC. ATC on some occasions may act on airport manager's behalf and " close " an airport when an accident has happened and the crash fire rescue teams could not respond to another accident. Certainly the airport can be closed to groom the runway...however this is usually done only after a US "nil" braking action report.
While people will throw around the term " closed" instead of saying, ''the airport is below operational minimums and we have elected to divert'' is closer to the truth.
on snowy days I have walked out to a good vantage point to look over the runway and like they say, " one picture is worth a thousand words".
Had an aborted takeoff happened, and the plane went off the end of the runway, this action of "checking" the runway would have been on more arrow in the quiver of this pilot's defense .
regards
jon