A B737-700 Flight Crew opted to land out of a moderately unstabilized approach rather than execute a go around into weather and other; slower; departure aircraft ahead of them.
Synopsis
A B737-700 Flight Crew opted to land out of a moderately unstabilized approach rather than execute a go around into weather and other; slower; departure aircraft ahead of them.
Narrative
Vectored to BOI and then direct; 10 miles from LOC; slowed to 200 knots; and vectored to intercept 10R LOC. Flaps 10 and gear down approaching glideslope at 4000 MSL; intercepted the LOC and tailwind 20 plus knots. Speed crept up to 200-205 knots; initially from 190; and slowed to 180. Selected Flaps 15 and continued to slow. At Flaps 25 at 1000'; Tower cleared a BE-200 for takeoff on my runway as we passed 1000'! 10L had a small aircraft landing short final. Large thunderstorms were at the departure end of the runway with a low ceiling and a slow climbing King Air in front of me. I elected to configure and land to avoid a mess at the end of the runway; had I chosen to go around. I landed on speed; configured; and exited at D intersection with no problems. I elected to land because a go-around closely behind a King Air climbing and a low ceiling with thunderstorm and numerous small aircraft in the pattern would/could have been very dangerous and we were stable and on glideslope; although late configuring. The First Officer and I discussed the issue quickly and we agreed to continue instead of going aroundApproach Control could have told us there was a 20+K tailwind on final; while calm on the runway. Tower should not have cleared a takeoff in front of us when we were at 1000! It left us with few options! We were ready to go around until the King Air took off.
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.