I recall 8 seconds from flight idle to T/O thrust, but those were B-2s with different engines.
To me, the only real question is "why were they so low?"
To me that's just a minor detail in the full picture. The real questions still remain to be answered:
- Why was this approach commenced at all with all numbers firmly below legal minima?
- Why was the airport not formally closed, when clearly the criteria for continued safe operations were not met? (a stark contrast to the mass hysteria over Europe at present
)
Plenty of speculation on both, but still no official word...