1. No ILS to 13R
2. JFK uses ILS 13L as a last resort
3. Wind was forecast to shift to approx. 190 heading.
4. It's a tough, tough, call to start switching airport traffic flow, to include LGA, EWR and JFK, to improve the runway/wind alignment for 10 degrees.
40 degrees off with those winds = 18 kt crosswind gusting to 26
50? 21 gusting to 31 kts.
Buddies said it was really rough when they flew in that night.