Why Can't the FAA Be More Like the NWS?

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The Chicago Tribune is reporting this morning that more than 500 flights have been cancelled at O'Hare (alone) and presenting that in positive terms after more than 2,000 flights were cancelled yesterday. More flights were cancelled at Midway. I think the Trib is being too kind.

All of this brings up a very simple question: Why does the Federal Aviation Administration keep failing, over and over, to update the air traffic system? In the National Weather Service, a situation like yesterday's would be handled by an adjacent NWS office. I've watched their backups work well in real time on a number of occasions. As I have stated on many occasions, the NWS provides tremendous value for the taxpayers' investments (see here and here, for just two examples).

Both Canada and New Zealand have privatized their air traffic control systems with great success. After decades of utter failure by the FAA, it is time to seriously consider the United States do the same. At the very minimum: Under federal law, mission critical U.S. public companies must have tested, working backup systems.

UPDATE: It is even worse than I thought. This was just brought to my attention. Because of the Aurora outage, the following weather observations, needed for weather forecasts and warnings, are unavailable until further notice:
KUGN WAUKEGAN REGIONAL AIRPORT IL
KDPA DU PAGE AIRPORT WEST CHICAGO IL
KARR AURORA MUNICIPAL AIRPORT SUGAR GROVE IL
KPWK CHICAGO EXECUTIVE AIRPORT WHEELING IL
KSQI WHITESIDE COUNTY AIRPORT STERLING/ROCK FALLS IL
KLAF LAFAYETTE IN
KVPZ PORTER COUNTY REGIONAL AIRPORT VALPARAISO IN
KGSH GOSHEN IN
KOSH OSHKOSH WI
KY50 WAUTOMA WI
KSBM SHEBOYGAN WI
KCID CEDAR RAPIDS IA
KDBQ DUBUQUE IA
KALO WATERLOO IA
KDVN DAVENPORT IA
KMIW MARSHALLTOWN IA
KAZO KALAMAZOO MI
KBTL BATTLE CREEK MI
KBEH BENTON HARBOR MI
Let me explain why this is. The FAA's airport observations (as opposed to the NWS's) all go through "the Kansas City switch" -- a computer in KC. I always thought there was a line from the Aurora Center and a line directly to the switch. Apparently not. Another FAA single point of failure.

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