Are automated systems ready? FAA to replace meteorologists at key traffic centers

[TrumanTheTiger]

Source: USA Today

The FAA announced it will end its over 40-year-old partnership with the NWS, effective on April 20, according to a news release by the National Weather Service Employees Organization. The termination will remove the on-site meteorologists at each of the 21 U.S. Air Route Traffic Control Centers who provide weather forecasting support to help prevent aviation accidents in lieu of a 24/7 accessible software.

………

"The FAA and NOAA are working on a path forward on the interagency agreement," the FAA said in a statement to USA TODAY. "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."

The National Weather Service Employees Organization said the move "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 letter to U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/news/2024/10/28/faa-air-traffic-control-weather-safety-risk/75900358007/

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Are you sure you’d want to fly in the spring—during the heat of tornado season—when there’s no meteorologist for air traffic controllers to consult with to keep from flying into a thunderstorm?

[Prof. Toru Tanaka]

1. I equate this to putting driverless vehicles out on public roads.

Air Route Traffic Control Centers are responsible for a huge amount of U.S. airspace, especially in the western half of the country. It is critical for pilots to have the most accurate, up to the minute forecasts possible. What happens if this new system has a failure for some reason?

[not fooled]

2. Article should be better

What is behind this change? There is no explanation. Just cost cutting? Who decided to save money by doing this? Or is this part of a scheme to privatize the FAA (speculation)? There is no way to tell from this thinly written piece.

[mdbl]

10. Maybe DeJoy is on the board there

Sounds like a plan he would propose.

[LudwigPastorius]

3. Right Wing Corporate Stooges:Immigrants are taking our jobs!

Meanwhile, big business slowly replaces us with software, AI, and soon, robots.

[LisaM]

4. I hope they think better of this.

It's actually pretty alarming. Maybe I will call my Senator's office next week. I fly a lot.

[jfz9580m]

5. The stupidity it takes

Last edited Tue Oct 29, 2024, 06:11 AM - Edit history (9)

To insist as Musk does that there is a declining birth rate issue as more and more jobs that need expertise get automated.. ..

Of course what Musk and oligarchs want is a cheap labor pool and cheap, environment destroying consumer goods.

I want to make an entire post about pronatalists like Musk and their confused and racist vision later.

[Marthe48]

6. If AI predicts weather

With the same lack of nuance of answers for searches on Google, God help flyers.

[Kid Berwyn]

16. Makes up stuff for medical transcripts.

Which is not cool.

[Marthe48]

17. Try antiques

Try anything that takes skill and intuition. AI is like the technical department of qanon

[2naSalit]

7. What if the...

Power goes out at a busy airport?

[Miguelito Loveless]

12. They have backup power for critical services

Power being lost at the flight center would be a disaster with or without actual weathermen.

[2naSalit]

14. And...

More explicitly, what if their systems go down or are hacked in some way?

I don't like the idea, I don't care how many computer program there are.

[Miguelito Loveless]

15. If their back up power is taken out

They would shunt to a different control center. The loss of all power at a flight center would mean problems way more pressing than weather reports.

[modrepub]

8. Weather Service Is Extremely Automated

The number of forecast meteorologists at any given NWS office probably is somewhere in the half a dozed to dozen range. They do good work but there aren't a lot of them to begin with.

I'd guess most airlines have their own meteorologists or contract with private services. A good meteorological forecast can pay for itself easily with fuel savings if the forecaster can find enough tailwind or avoid headwinds. The aviation industry is more dependent on forecasting for cost savings (reduced fuel usage) then safety in most instances.

IDK, probably not a lot to worry about unless you are the NWS meteorologist stationed for the FAA. Pilots and airplanes probably have direct access to the weather information they need without having to consult with an on-site person.

[Javaman]

9. yet another reason, I'm so glad I can't fly anymore. nt

[Farmer-Rick]

11. Well, if it's anything like the

Weather forecasts you get online, it's going to get very dangerous in the sky.

What exactly does a 30% chance of rain mean? No one predicted the hurricane hitting TN. Until it did.

When a few weeks of drought can wipe out days of planting and soil preparation, I watch the weather closely. And automated weather predictions and outlooks on line are so often wrong, I wouldn't trust them with human life.

I even purchased a service once for weather forecasts that was supposed to be state of the art accurate. I lost 2 acres of squash thanks to their predictions.

And what do you do when the weather wipes out your Internet, phone or electricity? During the hurricane, I lost the Internet connection but not electricity....well at least I didn't lose electricity for more than 15 minutes at a time.

15 minutes could be seriously dangerous to be flying in a storm. Especially if you calculate your fuel so sparingly.

[jmowreader]

13. So...SiriusXM Aviation Weather instead of human meteorologists?