Narrative:

While working the ard arrival sector; ewr was landing on the bridge visual runway 29 approach; and departures departing runway 04R. The winds were steady holding between 330 and 010 and between 20 to 28 KTS with gusts up to 34 or so. All was good; as we were operating with the runways best aligned with the winds. All of the sudden the supervisor comes around and announces a runway change and that we're going to the southwest flow; and do the [stadium] visual runway 29; and depart 22L. While the arrivals will still land with a runway favored by the winds; this forces teterboro (teb) to switch to runway 19/24. With the strong north-northwest winds this creates a very unsafe situation for both the ewr departures of 22L; and even more for the smaller aircraft users of teb that are now forced to land; and takeoff with very dangerous tailwinds. This is done all in the name of efficiency for ewr departures; and with total disregard for the safety of the teb users. This is an ongoing issue that has been going on for a while; and I regret not filing something sooner. I'm afraid nothing will get done until there is an accident; because unfortunately that seems to be the way things happen in this agency; and we are very reactive instead of proactive when it comes to safety. The airlines; tmu; ewr tower; and even our supervisors are all on board of pushing the southwest flow; even when the winds favor northeast flow; all in the name of efficiency. Although I have little faith anything will get done until an actual tragedy happens; I needed to file this report to at least have this on record. My recommendation is to stop forcing the users to land with strong tailwinds of 15 KTS or higher in the name of efficiency. There is a very poor safety culture at both N90 and ewr tower operations management; and tmu when it comes to efficiency vs. Safety choices in runway configuration selection; and this needs to be changed before somebody dies.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Reporter describes situation he feels is unsafe and puts the users in an unsafe situation. Changing runway direction and traffic flow to accommodate efficiency versus safety.

Narrative: While working the ARD arrival sector; EWR was landing on the bridge visual Runway 29 approach; and departures departing Runway 04R. The winds were steady holding between 330 and 010 and between 20 to 28 KTS with gusts up to 34 or so. All was good; as we were operating with the runways best aligned with the winds. All of the sudden the Supervisor comes around and announces a runway change and that we're going to the southwest flow; and do the [Stadium] Visual Runway 29; and depart 22L. While the arrivals will still land with a runway favored by the winds; this forces Teterboro (TEB) to switch to Runway 19/24. With the strong north-northwest winds this creates a very unsafe situation for both the EWR departures of 22L; and even more for the smaller aircraft users of TEB that are now forced to land; and takeoff with very dangerous tailwinds. This is done all in the name of efficiency for EWR departures; and with total disregard for the safety of the TEB users. This is an ongoing issue that has been going on for a while; and I regret not filing something sooner. I'm afraid nothing will get done until there is an accident; because unfortunately that seems to be the way things happen in this agency; and we are very reactive instead of proactive when it comes to safety. The airlines; TMU; EWR Tower; and even our supervisors are all on board of pushing the southwest flow; even when the winds favor northeast flow; all in the name of efficiency. Although I have little faith anything will get done until an actual tragedy happens; I needed to file this report to at least have this on record. My recommendation is to stop forcing the users to land with strong tailwinds of 15 KTS or higher in the name of efficiency. There is a very poor safety culture at both N90 and EWR Tower Operations Management; and TMU when it comes to efficiency vs. safety choices in runway configuration selection; and this needs to be changed before somebody dies.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.