Records on airline safety problems to be released, says NASA in turnaround
WASHINGTON - Abandoning its secrecy claims, NASA promised Congress today it will reveal results of an unprecedented federal aviation survey which found that aircraft near collisions, runway interference and other safety problems occur far more often than previously recognized.
Provoking broad criticism, NASA had said previously it was withholding the information because it feared it would upset air travelers and hurt airline profits. NASA cited those reasons in refusing to turn over the survey data to The Associated Press, which sought the information over 14 months under the Freedom of Information Act.
“We did say that, and that was the wrong thing to have said,” NASA’s administrator, Michael Griffin, testified during an oversight hearing. “I apologize. … People make mistakes. This was a mistake.”
Lawmakers from both sides were harshly critical. Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, said NASA’s reasons for withholding the research were “both troubling and unconvincing.”
Griffin said he has directed release “as soon as possible” of all the research data that does not contain what he described as confidential commercial information. He said NASA spent $11.3 million on the research.
“The survey results we can legally release will be released, period,” he said.
Griffin said NASA may release portions of the research data before the end of the year, after it spends time scrubbing the data to ensure none of the roughly 24,000 pilots who were interviewed anonymously by telephone could be identified.
Another lawmaker, Rep. Harry Mitchell, D-Ariz., asked: “Why does it take a hearing in Congress and public pressure for a hearing to get this information made public?”
Although to most people NASA is associated with spaceflight, the agency has a long history of aviation safety research. Its experts study atmospheric science and airplane materials and design, among other areas.
The survey project, called the National Aviation Operations Monitoring Service, was launched after a White House commission in the late 1990s called for government efforts to significantly reduce fatal aircraft accidents.
However, iIn an odd twist, Griffin raised doubts about the reliability of his own agency’s research by telling lawmakers that NASA does not consider the survey’s methodology or data to have been sufficiently verified.
Griffin confirmed NASA’s research project showed many types of safety incidents occurring more frequently than were reported by other U.S. government monitoring programs. But he cautioned that the data was never validated and warned, “There may be reason to question the validity of the methodology.”
“We did not manage that project well,” he told Congress today. “We will fix it and we will try not to do it again.”
NASA’s former head of the research project, Robert Dodd, told lawmakers the survey was based on “outstanding science,” extensively tested and ready for meaningful analysis. Dodd said NASA’s earlier explanations for withholding the information were “without merit.”
“I don’t believe that the … data contained any information that could compare with the image of a crashed air carrier airplane or would increase passengers’ fear of flying,” Dodd said.
NASA’s efforts to withhold the safety research earlier sparked tough talk on Capitol Hill and in the editorial pages of dozens of leading newspapers - which urged the agency to release its research. Griffin also has sought to assure lawmakers that NASA will not destroy the research. Earlier this month, NASA ordered the contractor that conducted the survey to return any project information, then purge all related data from its computers. Griffin said he has rescinded those instructions.