on the day in question, as soon as the snow clearing team had finished clearing the runway they had to start all over again because of the intensity of the snow showers.
How is anyone able to determine that the braking action is 'MED/POOR' (allowed) as oppose to POOR (not allowed)?? They arent and therefore safety is erroded/non-existent.
Such an assesment is one persons variable that HAS to be left to instruments.
Its totally different to a crew taxiing out to a runway and making an assessment of visibility, when for instance no RVR reporting is available; count the lights and you have an exact figure. Riding in a car on a runway and saying, yeh thats ok, is not an exact science!