The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has decided it can get all the weather it needs from automated software, and is saying goodbye to the National Weather Service meteorologists who have helped staff its 21 Air Route Control Centers for the past 40+ years.
The weathermen provide daily briefings and real-time advising on quickly evolving weather events to assist air traffic control with route decision-making. The program started in the early 1980s after a 1977 crash in Georgia that was blamed on FAA’s not being able to provide flight crews with timely weather information.
The National Weather Service Employees Organization has protested the move, saying it “will endanger flight safety across the National Air Space for the traveling public and airline industry crews” and that due to understaffing, “this new directive will increase risk.”
In a statement to USA Today, FAA responded that “The FAA and NOAA are working on a path forward on the interagency agreement. The weather safety of our national airspace remains our shared top priority and there will be no change in service that will impact this goal.”
