The Trump administration’s federal hiring freeze is squeezing the team of meteorologists who help air traffic controllers inform pilots about the weather minute-by-minute as they steer airplanes in and out of the Bay Area’s three major airports.
The Trump administration’s federal hiring freeze is squeezing the team of meteorologists who help air traffic controllers inform pilots about the weather minute-by-minute as they steer airplanes in and out of the Bay Area’s three major airports.
The cuts also affected the launching of weather balloons, less are being launched now daily, so current knowledge of the jet stream across the US will be more limited. This means daily routing of flights through the various air “lanes” gets more challenging, more unexpected air, predicted fuel burn rates will be wrong if a tailwind isn’t blowing as fast as estimated, or headwinds are stronger.
Likely won’t increase crashes too much, but will increase turbulence, in-flight injuries, rerouting, and detour landings.
(As well as forecasts for the ground being less accurate.)