Burying a safety study...

[wsuffa]

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. (AP) - Anxious to avoid upsetting air travelers, NASA is withholding results from an unprecedented national survey of pilots that found safety problems like near collisions and runway interference occur far more frequently than the government previously recognized.

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A senior NASA official, associate administrator Thomas S. Luedtke, said revealing the findings could damage the public's confidence in airlines and affect airline profits. Luedtke acknowledged that the survey results "present a comprehensive picture of certain aspects of the U.S. commercial aviation industry."

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"Release of the requested data, which are sensitive and safety-related, could materially affect the public confidence in, and the commercial welfare of, the air carriers and general aviation companies whose pilots participated in the survey," Luedtke wrote in a final denial letter to the AP.

Full story here:
http://www.wtopnews.com/?nid=116&sid=1274749

I'd expect this from the FAA, but not NASA. I'd certainly like to see the data as a way to improve safety. Instead, we've paid for a study where the results are buried and erased - meaning we've wasted the money.

 

[Areeda]

I'd certainly like to see the data as a way to improve safety. Instead, we've paid for a study where the results are buried and erased - meaning we've wasted the money.

That story sure made me more interested in the study.

As an eternal optimist, I don't think not released means buried and erased. Hopefully NASA and the FAA are using it now to come up with a plan to reduce the problems found. I also expect public pressure to force it's release, eventually.

That is unless someone comes up with a spin that puts terrorism in the equation.

Joe

 

[wsuffa]

Hopefully NASA and the FAA are using it now to come up with a plan to reduce the problems found. I also expect public pressure to force it's release, eventually.

I doubt it. This says why:

FAA officials expressed concerns about the high numbers of incidents being described by pilots because the NASA results were dramatically different from what FAA was getting from its own monitoring systems.

An FAA spokeswoman, Laura Brown, said the agency questioned NASA's methodology.

Having dealt with the FAA headquarters in the past on policy matters, if it 1) embarrasses them, or 2) isn't in line with burnishing their public image, it's very likely they'll fight against release. This study meets both tests. And I see evidence of the fight in the quote above.

That is unless someone comes up with a spin that puts terrorism in the equation.

Joe

Sorry, that's SSI.

 

[KennyFlys]

Is the report compiled from ASRS data? If so, it should already be public.

Me thinks there may be a bit of a spin. NASA probably doesn't automatically distribute to the media so it's portrayed as non-disclosure.

 

[TMetzinger]

IF AP had to resort to FOIA, and it was denied (as claimed in the article), then it is absolutely positively being sat on.

Back in the Reagan years, the definition of "National Security" was dramatically expanded to include protecting the economy and such, instead of being limited to military and intelligence matters. I remember because I was in the Coast Guard at the time and our ATON (Aids To Navigation) program got a boost because it was "essential to national security", meaning that if the buoys were wrong or missing and a barge/tanker went aground, it could have severe economic effects.

If the NASA study would seriously undermine public confidence in air travel, that could also have significant effects, not just on the airlines, but on the economy as a whole.

I don't necessarily agree with the decision, but can appreciate the concerns.

 

[AdamZ]

What is NASA thinking?

Hmmmm Tax dollars pay for a Aviation Saftey Study and NASA won't reveal the results so the public won't get upset. Makes me wonder if they really are gonna use those NASA forms to do any good.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21420050/

Please lets not do anything to move this into Spin!

 

[tonycondon]

my understanding from a brief read of the article was this study was not from the NASA form but from telephone interviews done over 4 years

 

[gprellwitz]

While I can understand (though not agree with) an airline putting profit over safety, I cannot fathom the government agency tasked with collecting this data doing the same. Miller said that there was a slight smell. I disagree; there's a full-blown stench about this!

And what did the FAA expect, that their monitoring methods, which offer penalization for errors, would result in as many incidents being reported as a system in which the participants are offered anonymity? On what basis are they challenging the results of the study?

 

[TMetzinger]

It's not just a question of airline profits. If people stop flying, EVERYBODY loses money. It's all interrelated.

 

[poadeleted20]

Telephone interviews? Anyone here been interviewed? I wonder how many were made, and how the interviewees were selected, and whether the results are demonstrably statistically significant. IOW, would the study stand up to the scrutiny of a peer review? If not, best to keep the study off the streets until it's been properly validated lest it be used to promote positions taken too hastily and without proper substantiation, and trumpeted in the press, stirring up inappropriate public reaction which could hurt us more than holding it back for validation.

BTW, I have in the past heard of safety studies being kept out of public view because of the potential public reaction, although the data and results were available to anyone who needed them for their safety work in government or industry (like me, in my job at the time).