Flight data now public

NASA fought release and obscured conclusions, but openness will ultimately serve public

Friday, Jan. 4, 2008 | midnight

After spending $11.5 million to interview 30,000 pilots and record their experiences with flight hazards, NASA abruptly ended the project in 2005 and mothballed the information.

Fortunately, the Associated Press heard about the 2001-2004 project. The news service, quite reasonably, wanted to make public what NASA had learned. But it was originally rebuffed when it filed a request to NASA under the federal Freedom of Information Act. NASA told the AP that release of the information gathered from pilot surveys “could materially affect the public confidence in, and the commercial welfare of, the air carriers.”

NASA should have immediately granted the FOIA request, as its administrator, Michael Griffin, now acknowledges. Nevertheless, Griffin still maintains that the surveys, which indicate far more air hazards than ever acknowledged by the Federal Aviation Administration, are not valid and should be disregarded.

The survey results, numbering 16,000 pages, were released on New Year's Eve, with no accompanying analysis. Information that would have provided context for clipped pilot responses, such as “air crew falling asleep,” was missing.

Griffin implausibly argues that the project was not about collecting actual pilot responses. He says its purpose was simply to test methodologies for gathering more information bearing on flight safety. Yet the project, according to ABC News, sprang from a federal aviation commission in 1997 that set a goal of reducing aviation accidents by 80 percent by 2007.

The AP's use of the Freedom of Information Act pried the raw data loose. Now the data will be analyzed by the National Academy of Sciences. Our view is the opposite of NASA's. Neither public confidence nor the commercial welfare of the air carriers will be “materially affected.” But, hopefully, safety standards will be.