Checked the Notams. Charleston has 2 runways, 23/05 and 21/03. Rwy 21/03 is closed. Rwy 23/05 is closed daily 0401-1000Z, 2300-0500 local. Even if the departure from Charlotte was delayed the pilot/dispatcher should have been able to figure out, based upon their departure time, what their arrival time at Charleston was going to be. Its possible that the airline dispatcher coordinated with the Charleston ATC supervisor about landing there and may have been told the aircraft could land so long as it arrived by 2300 local. Having worked as a controller and in airport operations, once a Notam is issued closing a runway at a specified time, except for an emergency, the runway closes. Still, I would like to know how far the aircraft was from Charleston at 2300.
Here is a chronology posted by someone (see article comments) who claims to have been a passenger.
Posted by allie29418 on July 24, 2009 at 9:52 a.m.
We boarded around 10:30 and we were put in a holding pattern being told we were waiting for the storm to pass over because it was headed north east. As the storm passed, we were told there were 15 planes ahead of us to take off. (Anyone remember that it was a major feat for the AF to launch 17 C-17's one minute apart? Do the math US Air..... At that point I sent my husband a text saying we were holding with 15 planes ahead of us and he texted back that the runway in Charleston closed at midnight and we would not make it. And he does not work for US Air but even he figured this out. According to my clock, it was 11:35 by time we actually took off and the pilot said it was a 31 minute flight, so that shows they knew we would not make it by midnight. But I guess he thought risking a tank of gas on an airplane was not a big deal, after all the airlines had nothing else to lose wiht their high profit margins these days...;) So at 12:07 they announced we were being turned around (now flying the direction of the storm) hey, no big deal right?