As the federal agency mandated with ensuring aviation safety, FAA recognizes the role we must play in providing timely and accurate weather information to aviation users. This requires both the coordination of all available weather information and the adequate dissemination of this information. While FAA will never be able to change the weather, we must work to minimize the negative effects of adverse weather on safety. To do this, we must combine our efforts with those of the other government agencies to develop better predictive technologies, to make those technologies more widely available, and to work with the users of the system to identify their needs and try to meet them. The vast majority of these accidents involved general aviation aircraft, so we know where we must concentrate our efforts.
Technology is only one piece of the puzzle.
The other, equally important pieces are pilot training and pilot judgment. To assist in understanding how the FAA participates in disseminating information on weather, I would like to go through how pilots typically obtain information on weather. Pilots can get weather information from many sources. Commercial pilots receive their weather information from their airline dispatchers or other approved sources. The information provided is from a combination of sources, including the FAA, the NWS, DOD, and other pilots operating in the area.