A new proposal from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) would shift the responsibility of monitoring the skies at airports from meteorological professionals to air traffic controllers, according to the Washington Post.
Both parties have expressed concern about the ability for air traffic controllers to handle the job.
"Shifting responsibility to air traffic controllers, who have several other duties, there will be some information lost," Melissa McCaffrey, a senior analyst at the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOCP) said. The organization represents 400,000 aviation pilots. "That's concerning, because the number one cause of general aviation fatalities is weather-related issues."
The transition would be "no big deal," according to a senior FAA official who was not authorized to speak for the agency.
"The controllers are already in the tower so they just need to be trained to take tower weather observations," the official added. "Not hard, in the old days we used to do it all the time."
Professional weather observers are contracted by the FAA to analyze the weather observations recorded by an automated system at 142 airports around the country. With the FAA plan, the weather observation task will shift to air traffic controllers at 121 airports by September 30, with more to follow.
Weather observers cost the FAA approximately $57 million annually. They are either meteorologists or have specialized military weather training, according to Mark Richards, the site supervisor of the FAA Contract Weather Office at Reagan National Airport.
Air traffic controllers would be required to take two training courses, complete five hours of on-the job training and pass a weather observing certification exam.
"They're dumbing down the training requirements, replacing people who've been doing this for years and saying no loss in service," Richards said. While weather observation is uneventful on days with clear weather, it can become very fast paced during periods of inclement weather.
"During critical times, when air traffic controllers are most busy, and [weather reports] need most care and attention, they'd need to do the most," Richards said.
Bob Hepler, the site supervisor of the FAA Contract Weather Office at JFK International Airport in New York has concerns about the feasibility of performing both tasks simultaneously.
"To require air traffic controllers at the busiest airports in the nation to interrupt their job of controlling air traffic in order to perform all the same functions of a Certified Contract Weather Observer, especially in times of poor weather conditions, is not only dangerously impractical but impossible," Hepler said.
The FAA has released a statement saying they are committed to ensuring pilots and operators have accurate weather information.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
