NATCA denounces decision to close Weather Service Units at Regional FAA Centres

Said NATCA President Patrick Forrey: This is a foolish plan that puts cost savings ahead of safety. Quite frankly, we cannot believe such a reckless idea has gotten this far. The public needs to know that if put into place, this plan would directly and negatively affect the margin of safety for the air traffic control system. Currently, National Weather Service meteorologists are stationed in weather forecast units inside each one of the FAAs Air Route Traffic Control Centers (ARTCC) called en route centers for short. This system was put in place in 1978 as a result of a recommendation made by the National Transportation Safety Board.The FAAs inability to quickly disseminate information regarding hazardous weather to flight crews was found to be a major contributing factor in the 1977 crash of a Southern Airways DC-9 in New Hope, Ga. If the Department of Commerces plan is implemented, 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. Therefore, NATCA and the National Weather Service Employees Organization (NWSEO) are urging an end to this plan due to both organizations concern that the flying public will be at risk if controllers are suddenly unable to quickly send hazardous weather information to flight crews. As our NATCA facility representative at Fort Worth Center, Russ Miller, has said, this is the kind of ill-conceived cost-savings that turns out to be tragically expensive the day after a disaster, Forrey said. There is absolutely no good or sensible reason to end what has been a key part of our ability to call our system the worlds safest. None whatsoever.