by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 10:55 AM ET, Wed October 30, 2024
The Federal Aviation Administration will be ending a 40-year partnership with the National Weather Service (NWS) next spring, replacing all its meteorologists working in air traffic control centers around the nation with new software.
The decision, according to USA TODAY, was announced in news released by the National Weather Service Employees Organization and poses some concern for the lack of human oversight.
The new software will replace on-site forecasters at the 21 U.S. Air Route Traffic Control Centers that typically help prevent aviation accidents by offering weather forecasting through modeling, radar and satellite data. Replacing them with software would “endanger flight safety,” according to the NWS Employees Organization.
"The FAA and NOAA are working on a path forward on the interagency agreement," the FAA told 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."
On-site meteorologists have been used at air traffic control centers since the early 1980s, after a Southern Airways plane crashed in New Hope, Georgia in 1977 due to a lack of timely and accurate weather information.
Back in August, the National Weather Service applauded the upgrade to the Next Generation Weather Radar network, called NEXRAD. Thirty-seven of the newly updated radars are owned and maintained by the FAA and the Department of Defense.
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