One gets the definite impression that members of the House Science & Technology Committee do not want to get rolled again by the National Aeronautics & Space Committee. Consider this revealing passage from the legislators’ 22 October letter to NASA Administrator Michael Griffin:

“(We) ask that you make a copy of all NAOMS [National Aviation System Operational Monitoring Service] data resulting from the pilots survey and in the possession of either NASA or Battelle [who provided contract support for the survey] and deliver it to the Committee in an electronic format. As we wish to insure that an unadulterated record of that data be retained, we request the raw data files that the researchers at Ames are supposed to be working from … (be provided) … no later than 5 p.m. Tuesday, November 6, 2007.”

The subject of this request is for an extensive survey of pilots that NASA refused to release under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to the Associated Press (AP), which had requested the material. The survey of some 24,000 pilots, via telephone calls and questionnaires, purportedly indicates that air safety is not as good as generally believed, and as touted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The incidents of bird strikes, runway incursions and near mid-air collisions are about twice what FAA records indicate, according to sources.

The Congressmen’s 3-page letter to Administrator Griffin, warning against destruction of materials and promising hearings on the matter, pointedly reminded Griffin of the unseemly pattern of activity:

“This is not the first time this year that we have written regarding a report that NASA was involved in the destruction of materials. In that prior instance, your own General Counsel destroyed video records of your appearance before the staff of the Inspector General. The evidence of misconduct was so clear that the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee sent a bipartisan referral letter to the Department of Justice seeking the prosecution of your General Counsel.”

In a letter to the AP denying the FOIA request, associate NASA administrator Thomas Luedke said, “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.”

Rep. Brad Miller (D – N.C.), chairman of the Science & Technology Investigations & Oversight Subcommittee, and who was one of three who signed the letter to Griffin, was put off by such dissembling. “If the airlines aren’t safe, I want to know about it,” he said. “I would rather not feel a false sense of security because they don’t tell us.”

Administrator Griffin was compelled to issue a statement, saying that he has decreed an inquiry into release of the data and, “NASA should focus on how we can provide information to the public – not on how we can withhold it.”

The issue of the suppressed safety survey has reached the level of national embarrassment. On 24 October, it was the subject of a New York Times editorial:

“The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which has a mandate to enhance the safety of air travel, has been suppressing huge quantities of data that apparently show the risks for civilian aircraft are much higher than commonly estimated. The agency’s lame excuses for refusing to release the information must make any traveler wonder how bad the implications might be."

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials are discounting the survey saying, among other things, that the survey may feature two pilot reports on the same event. This “double counting” can inflate the results, they say. Senior FAA officials have been saying that flying has never been safer, and obviously the suppressed NASA survey may throw cold water on that comforting assertion.

Robert Dodd, an aviation safety expert hired by NASA to manage the survey said, “The data is strong. Our process was very meticulously designed and very thorough.”

About $8 million was spent on the survey, which works out to more than $300 per pilot surveyed. Air traffic controllers, flight attendants and ground workers were to have been included, but funding ran short.

As it is, the air traffic controllers claim justification by the pilots’ reports. “We feel vindicated,” said Doug Church of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA). “This is yet another source of proof that the margin of safety in this country has been degraded over the last several years and the FAA and the Administration are doing everything they know how to cover up the facts.”

“It’s unfortunate that NASA ended the survey without talking to controllers first,” Church added. “We would have welcomed the opportunity to share our insight and feel it would have only added to the validity and credibility of the claims made by the pilots who were interviewed.”

Jim Hall, a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), said, “The reason we have advanced aviation to such a degree in this country is because we have an open system. It’s the worst type of policy to try to hide something from the people it is intended to serve.”

It should be mentioned that NASA maintains the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) for the FAA, and the de-identified reports from pilots are available to the public on request.