Any Unknown or Unlisted Aircraft Manufacturer
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Situational Awareness; Communication Breakdown
Ground Event / Encounter Loss Of Aircraft Control
Flight Crew Regained Aircraft Control
ATC Equipment / Nav Facility / Buildings; Airport; Human Factors; Weather
During approach to Runway 23; we received a runway condition report from the state of; 'Runway 23 bare and wet.' Based upon this runway condition report in association with the ACARS landing data; we elected to continue our approach and land on Runway 23. We touched down on the 700 to 800 foot marker on centerline; and encountered poor to nil braking action. Using differential thrust we were able to keep the aircraft between the lights and stop in the available landing distance on Runway 23 with difficulty. The runway condition report was clearly not accurate.The ADAK weather observer was not in town at the time so the ASOS-3 was the only available weather source. In addition; the ASOS does not report precipitation. We only received visibility reports from the ASOS to use as a source for determining the possibility of precipitation moving through the area. We chose to land on Runway 23 with the ILS due to the fact that we had fairly strong east/southeasterly wind that usually packs fog up against the final approach course for Runway 05; and we had good ACARS landing data for Runway 23. We had no way of knowing this however; due to the absence of a weather observer on the ground that day. So; we were using prior experience and local knowledge of Adak Island to fly an approach that had the safest and best chance of an arrival in Adak.We broke out on the approach around 700 MSL or so; and the runway looked like it had no contamination on it. Note; we were encountering moderate rain; moderate turbulence; with wipers running high speed so we weren't getting a good look at the runway surface like we would with no precipitation falling. On short final; we could see all the runway markings. As we touched down; I thought that they looked a little cloudy; but by then the aircraft was sliding and we were concentrating on keeping directional control with the crosswind; and still stop the jet. Once we got stopped; we could see that there was a clear coat of slush on the runway surface; impossible for us to determine before touchdown. Also; we noticed that you could see our tracks on Runway 23 very clearly; so there was indeed contamination on the runway. We told the state and they went out and plowed the runway again; and gave us a 'bare and wet' report once again. During taxi out for departure we noticed that the runway was now indeed bare and wet. The event was mainly caused by an inaccurate report of the runway condition during our approach. With no other sources to go by as far as precipitation falling in the Adak area; no weather observer and no precipitation available on the ASOS; we relied on the runway condition report; which turned out to be inaccurate. On retrospect; a landing on 05 with the displaced threshold imposed on us may not have given us enough room to stop the jet with the poor to nil braking action and only a little over 5;200 FT of available runway left to stop in. Bottom line; if an accurate runway condition report was given; the entire event would not have happened.
Lack of timely weather and runway condition reports led a flight crew to land on Runway 23 at PADK only to discover poor to nil braking action on the runway.