Professional weather observers inside the air traffic control tower at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (ABIA) do not have windows or Internet access to check weather radar, satellite images or other conditions around the area, according to federal documents.
Weather spotters — who play a vital role in the nation's aviation system by serving as a human backup to automated weather systems — can't see or hear outside, so they have to walk up two flights of stairs and out of the tower to check the weather. Current weather conditions. To look up basic weather data online, they would have to go outside and use their iPhones, the documents said.
“For me, as a meteorologist, this is unacceptable,” said Troy Kimmel, a radio meteorologist who teaches at the University of Texas at Austin. “If you go to [other major Texas airports], there is no other place where weather observers cannot see it or access instruments. “There is no other location like Austin, Texas.”
“This makes absolutely no sense,” Kimmel said.
Michael Minasi
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Kut News
The City of Austin owns the air traffic control tower and helps maintain the building. But the people who work inside and the technology they use are under the jurisdiction of the FAA.
“There were no problems with [weather observers] FAA spokesman Tammy L. “We obtained weather observations at the Austin Tower,” Jones said in an emailed statement. “Electronic devices, including cell phones, are not permitted in control towers. Internet access is available for all licensed devices in other areas of the buildings.”
But weather observers contracted by the FAA are not federal employees and do not have access to those “authorized devices,” according to details buried in a trove of documents released by the National Transportation Safety Board. The documents are factual data collected as part of the investigation into a near-miss in Apia between two large aircraft on a foggy morning in February 2023.
The NTSB is investigating why air traffic control in Austin allowed a FedEx Boeing 767 to land on the same runway where a Southwest Airlines Boeing 737 was preparing to take off. The FedEx plane canceled the landing at the last minute, avoiding a collision that could have killed 128 passengers and crew. The NTSB's final report is expected soon.
Michael Minasi
/
Kut News
Weather observers did not consider it a factor in the near miss. But officials investigating the incident interviewed the director of the weather observer and asked him if the lack of Internet access made it difficult to do the job.
“Absolutely, yes, sir. Absolutely,” replied John Prator, a veteran weather forecaster with experience at more than a dozen airports including some of the nation's largest.
Prator and his employer, California-based Condor Reliability Services, did not respond to requests for comment.
The FAA has already faced criticism for not having enough air traffic controllers at the Austin tower, leading to mandatory overtime and 6-day work weeks.
Democratic U.S. Reps. Lloyd Doggett and Greg Casar of Texas criticized the agency for ABIA's controlling staffing levels, part of a chronic nationwide shortage for which Doggett called for “swift and strong action.”
