Aviation Crashes and other FAA News

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“… “A lot of people don’t even realize this job exists,” said Behringer, who is a meteorologist with the weather service’s Bay Area office but spoke to KQED after hours in his union capacity. “Ninety-five percent of the delays at San Francisco International Airport are actually due to the weather.”

Meteorologists located at the weather service offices in Seattle, Washington, and Palmdale, California, are helping, but those teams are also short-staffed, Behringer said.

… The meteorologist works with the air traffic controllers at a command center in Fremont. Their role is to provide real-time weather updates seven days a week, forecasting any turbulence from around 40,000 feet in the air down to the runway.

This includes issuing pre-shift briefings, weather advisories and coordinating with the weather service’s Aviation Weather Center. The work is similar to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s public-facing weather service located in Monterey. But the center’s forecasters are looking for threats to airplanes, thunderstorms, strong wind, volcanic ash and anything else that could affect flights.

…
There are 21 of these weather service units nationwide who work alongside air traffic controllers. NOAA and the FAA founded the program after a Southern Airways flight flew into a thunderstorm and crashed while en route to Atlanta in 1977. An investigation found that air traffic controllers needed timely weather information.

While Behringer said the safety of passengers is not in jeopardy, a single sick day could create problems.

The meteorologists are employees of the weather service, which pays for their time off. The FAA funds their salaries. …”

www.kqed.org

Bay Area Air Traffic Control Is Down to 1 Meteorologist After Trump's Hiring Freeze | KQED

The federal hiring freeze has left a vital Bay Area aviation weather unit with just one meteorologist, risking flight delays and disruptions. The unit oversees a vast airspace, ensuring the safe landing of over a million flights yearly.
www.kqed.org www.kqed.org
 
nycfan said:
“… “A lot of people don’t even realize this job exists,” said Behringer, who is a meteorologist with the weather service’s Bay Area office but spoke to KQED after hours in his union capacity. “Ninety-five percent of the delays at San Francisco International Airport are actually due to the weather.”

Meteorologists located at the weather service offices in Seattle, Washington, and Palmdale, California, are helping, but those teams are also short-staffed, Behringer said.

… The meteorologist works with the air traffic controllers at a command center in Fremont. Their role is to provide real-time weather updates seven days a week, forecasting any turbulence from around 40,000 feet in the air down to the runway.

This includes issuing pre-shift briefings, weather advisories and coordinating with the weather service’s Aviation Weather Center. The work is similar to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s public-facing weather service located in Monterey. But the center’s forecasters are looking for threats to airplanes, thunderstorms, strong wind, volcanic ash and anything else that could affect flights.

…
There are 21 of these weather service units nationwide who work alongside air traffic controllers. NOAA and the FAA founded the program after a Southern Airways flight flew into a thunderstorm and crashed while en route to Atlanta in 1977. An investigation found that air traffic controllers needed timely weather information.

While Behringer said the safety of passengers is not in jeopardy, a single sick day could create problems.

The meteorologists are employees of the weather service, which pays for their time off. The FAA funds their salaries. …”

www.kqed.org

Bay Area Air Traffic Control Is Down to 1 Meteorologist After Trump's Hiring Freeze | KQED

The federal hiring freeze has left a vital Bay Area aviation weather unit with just one meteorologist, risking flight delays and disruptions. The unit oversees a vast airspace, ensuring the safe landing of over a million flights yearly.
www.kqed.org www.kqed.org
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So, the conclusion we can draw from this is…?
 
ColdBlueSteel said:
So, the conclusion we can draw from this is…?
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The weather support provided by this position is down to one person for now and I guess the airport will have to figure it out some other way when that person can’t be at work.
 
nycfan said:
The weather support provided by this position is down to one person for now and I guess the airport will have to figure it out some other way when that person can’t be at work.
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I don’t understand why an airport needs a or multiple meteorologists.
 
farce© said:
Really? You don’t understand why real time weather information might be important to flight operations?
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I haven’t piloted a plane in 17 years, but back when I did real time weather information at airports was automated. You could call a phone number and get real time wind, ceiling, temp and visibility info before you even got out of bed. They measured and reported on wind shear at airports automatically as well. I understand very well the need for real time weather info, but not the need for an airport meteorologist.

Any other aviation professionals on the board?
 
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ColdBlueSteel said:
I haven’t piloted a plane in 17 years, but back when I did real time weather information at airports was automated. You could call a phone number and get real time wind, ceiling, temp and visibility info before you even got out of bed. They measured and reported on wind shear at airports automatically as well. I understand very well the need for real time weather info, but not the need for an airport meteorologist.

Any other aviation professionals on the board?
Click to expand...
That’s great for takeoff of a single aircraft. But what about for coordinating landings at a large international airport near the ocean with highly variable conditions? We may be on the cusp of having AI handle this job by the end of this decade but the job hardly seems irrational or some sort of meteorologist job program. Clearly it is not required to run the airport because they were already short-staffed pre-hiring freeze, but it sounds like the role is considered a valuable safety feature to provide support to ATCs handling a ton of variables real time.
 
www.cbsnews.com

FAA's head of air traffic retiring early as agency replaces senior managers at Reagan National Airport

In the wake of the deadly mid-air collision and a series of concerning close calls, the FAA has brought in a new management team to the air traffic control tower at Reagan National Airport.
www.cbsnews.com www.cbsnews.com

Tim Arel, the head of the Federal Aviation Administration's Air Traffic Organization, will retire early as part of the second round of buyouts at the Department of Transportation.

Arel, who has been working at the agency for four decades, had planned to retire at the end of 2025 but will now depart in the coming months to ensure a smooth transition, the FAA told CBS News in a statement.

As the chief operation officer of the Air Traffic Organization, Arel is responsible for ensuring the safety of air traffic services for approximately 50,000 aircraft operating every day.

But in the wake of the deadly midair collision in January, a series of concerning close calls and a fist fight in the tower between employees, the FAA brought in a new management team to the air traffic control tower at Reagan National Airport, CBS News has confirmed. Three senior managers were replaced as part of this move.
 
www.cbsnews.com

Reported fight in control tower at Reagan National Airport under investigation by FAA, man arrested

A man, identified as an air traffic controller by government payroll records, was arrested after police were called to the DCA tower because of a fight.
www.cbsnews.com www.cbsnews.com

The FAA confirms it is investigating reports of a fight between employees inside the air traffic control tower at Reagan National Airport, or DCA, last week.

Police say they were called to the DCA tower outside Washington, D.C., on Thursday because of a fight. Officers arrested 39-year-old Damon Gaines of Upper Marlboro, Maryland, according to the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police. He is facing charges of assault and battery.

Government payroll records online identify Gaines as an air traffic controller. He is on administrative leave while the matter is investigated, the FAA said.

CBS News has tried to contact Gaines for comment.

The union representing air traffic controllers who are typically the people working inside the Reagan control tower declined to comment.

It is unclear what prompted the reported altercation, which comes as the situation at the DCA tower has been increasingly tense since a mid-air air collision in January killed 67 people in the deadliest U.S. aviation disaster since 2001. It also comes after a Delta Air Lines flight departing Reagan airport experienced a close call with an Air Force jet after taking off on Friday.
 

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is replacing three air traffic control managers at Reagan National Airport (DCA) in Washington, DC, following a tumultuous few months in the hub’s tower, reports say.


On Tuesday, the FAA confirmed to the Washington Post that the three managers, who oversee air traffic control operations at DCA, and two other busy airports in the area—Dulles International and Baltimore-Washington International Marshall—would be offered reassignment after a violent incident erupted in control tower at the end of March.





That episode saw a supervisor in the DCA tower punch a subordinate in the face, drawing blood, according to the Post’s report. The supervisor was later charged with assault and battery and put on administrative leave.
 
Reports say it was a touring helicopter. I just heard on the police scanner that 5 people have been recovered.
 
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