The National Transportation Safety Board hopes the National Weather Service will create additional guidance for pilots about the hazards surrounding non-convective turbulence conditions, as well as provide additional formal training to NWS forecasters to encourage consistency of analysis, interpretation and forecasting of low-level turbulence.
NTSB Recommends Improved Consistency on Turbulence Reporting by the National Weather Service
Key Takeaways:
- The NTSB is urging the National Weather Service (NWS) to provide better guidance for pilots on non-convective turbulence and offer more formal, consistent training for NWS forecasters on low-level turbulence.
- These recommendations stem from an ongoing investigation into an April 2017 Pilatus PC-12 air ambulance crash in Amarillo, Texas, which resulted in three fatalities.
- The investigation suggested that low-level turbulence, potentially not communicated to the pilot, might have been present, partly due to inconsistent criteria among NWS forecasters for issuing advisories like AIRMETs.
- The NTSB emphasizes the importance of consistent issuance of turbulence weather advisories for pilots, regardless of altitude, given the known safety risks associated with low-level turbulence.
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