As a helicopter pilot, this all seems a lot of fuss and hand wringing about nothing. If the remaining runway was long enough for the landing aircraft to make a safe landing, i.a.w. required distances, what is the actual problem, apart from the fears of some individuals? The runway was still a runway, just a somewhat shorter one! The captain of the aircraft at the time is, by the privileges of his licence, responsible for the safe operation of his aircraft. Why not just allow him the privilege of doing just that?
I was once denied landing permission at London heliport as we turned onto final approach because the management suddenly decided it wasn't safe because they had a couple of inches of snow on the FATO (raised helideck) after a shower had passed through. We could have landed perfectly safely, even if an engine had failed (we operated Class 1) and in fact our departure point had been a helipad with much deeper snow on it.
We had to divert back to Denham where there was
eighteen inches of uncleared snow. Still no major problem for us, but the pax suffered a hell of a lot of inconvenience afterwards, for no good reason except for the over-cautiousness of others who weren't in a pilot's position to judge the situation properly.
Some overly sensitive/cautious FW pilots could do themselves a bit of learning and go fly in a Class 1 performance helicopter, on a safe and legal flight, to and from an average private landing site. That would open their eyes a bit with regards to "obstructed" operating areas.
