FAA may close weather offices
Forecasts would come from two central sites
WASHINGTON – The federal government Thursday moved forward with a controversial proposal that would close weather offices at 20 regional air traffic control centers around the country and instead provide controllers with forecasts from two central units in Maryland and Missouri.
The consolidation plan came under immediate fire from the union representing National Weather Service employees, which charged that the change will endanger aviation safety.
“Air traffic controllers will no longer have the immediate expertise of an on-site meteorologist to advise them where to route aircraft experiencing difficulty when weather conditions play a critical role in that decision,” said Dan Sobien, president of the National Weather Service Employees Organization.
But the Federal Aviation Administration, which sought the changes, says advances in technology make face-to-face contact between controllers and forecasters unnecessarily expensive. No weather service employees will lose jobs under the proposed consolidation, according to federal officials, though job locations would change.
The FAA has received the report but has not yet reviewed it, according to Paul Takemoto, a spokesman for the agency.
If accepted, the next step would be to outline a nine-month demonstration and evaluation of the two-center approach to ensure there is no degradation in service or impact on safety, according to Chris Vaccaro, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The two centers will be in College Park, Md., and Kansas City, Mo.
The evaluation would be subject to third-party review, Vaccaro said.
Under the new proposal, one ”lead forecaster on duty“ will be available at each of the two consolidated weather stations as a point-of-contact to support 10 regional air traffic control centers by instant messaging or telephone.
Takemoto said the current arrangement is based on the technology that was available in the 1970s and needs to be updated. Every regional air traffic control center now “has up-to-the-minute weather from a variety of sources,” he said.