As a SLF I am commenting from experience rather than knowledge of the operations. In the late 80's I flew on Suckling Airways from Manchester to Ipswich (an all grass airfield) one Friday evening in a Dornier 228. The flight was diverted to Stansted as apparently the Ipswich runway had worsened during the day as a result of heavy rains and was no longer safe.
Seemed eminently sensible to me. I would hope that procedures would avoid using a muddy runway where there was a risk.
Although letting my then wife know was a challenge in the pre-mobile era. IIRC she had driven past Stansted en route to Ipswich only to be told that we were arriving late at Stansted and our eventual destination was exactly midway between the two.
Last edited by srobarts; 30th Dec 2010 at 12:58.
Reason: typo