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  Matthias Promegger, 2. May 2024 @ 10: 37

  I wrote a letter to the editor about this in the Salzburger Nachrichten on March 25th. The same problem also exists in Innsbruck. I now assume that there will be legal proceedings: neglect of the supervisory obligation or complete failure of the authority.

  Planned closure of the aviation weather service in Salzburg
  Austro Control GmbH - the Austrian Civil Aviation Company wholly owned by the federal government - intends to operate the most modern aviation weather station in Austria, which was recently built at a very high financial cost and is housed directly next to the radar approach control center in the control tower at Salzburg Airport, from July 100st. to close forever in 1. In the future, the flying weather required for regulated flight operations, including the associated warnings and forecasts, will be created centrally in Vienna through remote observation, based on sensors and cameras.

  The renewed initiative against this closure by LH deputy and also AR chairman Stefan Schnöll is welcome and urgently necessary. Boeing is currently showing us on a daily basis where incorrect management thinking combined with ignoring safety regulations and safety concerns in aviation can lead.

  Those responsible at the federal state airports were simply duped by the management of Austro Control: the promise of consistent quality and the glossing over of reliability in remote diagnosis is untenable. The aviation authority supervision in the BMK, under the responsibility of BM Leonore Gewessler, is inactive and has obviously not (yet) recognized the explosive nature of the matter.

  The remote monitoring system with sensors and cameras has a serious safety-related weak point: Precisely when the information is most important for the pilots, controllers and airport operators due to critical weather conditions such as thunderstorms, snowfall, hail, fog or icing caused by freezing precipitation, the probability is of false and missing reports is the highest. If you can't imagine that, you should try driving your car autonomously when it's snowing - although it doesn't even have to be snowing, the sensors and cameras no longer work when it rains.

  The weather service provider Austro Control, on the other hand, promises that even in “night, fog and storm” a clear visibility assessment, flight visibility in all relevant areas and directions, precise information on precipitation, cloud accumulations with cloud bases and all other approaching dangers will continue to be delivered precisely. How this can work with sensors covered in snow or cameras covered in rain or stuck with ice remains to be seen.

  The ability to determine visibility using cameras and the use of AI systems that determine visibility based on camera images are not recognized by either the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) or the EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) as permissible observation or surveillance methods Measuring method defined. In any case, even when using automatic observation systems, an agreement would be required between the weather observation station and the customer. I assume that the managing director of Salzburg Airport has not completed this. “Making an on-site weather observation” by removing the suffix “AUTO” in the aviation weather report is also misleading. Just to mention a few more discrepancies.

  In order to ensure regular flight operations for the topographically difficult airports of Salzburg and Innsbruck, special approach procedures with high requirements and requirements were developed. This also means that precise weather values ​​(visibility, cloud cover, lower limits) must be available for an approach clearance. This is the striking difference to the other airports in Austria. In any case, this is also one reason for the expected economic losses.

  Finally, I would like to mention that I worked as an air traffic controller at the Salzburg Tower for 35 years. I have guided tens of thousands of aircraft in and out of the Salzburg Basin. For this activity, the current flying weather combined with short-term local dangers, warnings and forecasts is an indispensable basis for the clearances and instructions to the pilots.

  I am confident that Stefan Schnöll will be able to keep the meteorologists' jobs in Salzburg, even if new employees have already been taken on in Vienna.

  However, I also see the option of reporting to the public prosecutor's office and clarification in court in the course of a declaratory procedure regarding the neglect of the statutory duty of supervision and the tasks of air traffic control (BGBL No. 253/1957 §119 ff).

  Matthias Promegger, 5020 Salzburg