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http://www.newsmax.com/newsfront/NASA_Releases_Pilot_Surve/2008/01/01/60932.html
NASA Releases Pilot Survey
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
NASA grudgingly released some results Monday from an $11.3 million federal
air safety study it previously withheld from the public over concerns it
would upset travelers and hurt airline profits. The data reflects hundreds
of cases where pilots flew too close to other planes, plunged from altitude
or landed at airports without clearance.
NASA published the findings - contained in 16,208 pages - but did not
provide a roadmap to understand them, making it cumbersome for any thorough
analysis by outsiders. Released on New Year's Eve, the unprecedented
research conducted over nearly four years relates to safety problems
identified by some 25,000 commercial pilots and more than 4,000 private
pilots interviewed by telephone.
The results from commercial pilots appeared to reflect in part at least
1,266 incidents in which aircraft flew within 500 feet of each other,
generally considered a near miss; at least 1,312 cases where pilots suddenly
dropped or climbed inadvertently more than 300 feet in flight; and 166
reports of pilots landing without clearance at an airport with an active
control tower. The Associated Press matched the data to the questionnaire
that was used to interview pilots and was obtained separately by the AP.
The data also reflected 513 reports of hard landings and 4,267 cases of
aircraft hitting birds.
Because NASA scrambled the data, it was impossible to determine whether
multiple pilots might be reporting the same incidents, and a key expert said
the numbers appeared inflated. NASA also did not present the data so
researchers could project survey results to overall safety trends.
The data that NASA released was "intentionally designed to prevent people
from analyzing the rates properly and are designed to entrap analysts into
computing rates that are much higher than the survey really shows," said Jon
Krosnick, a Stanford University professor and survey expert who helped
design the project for NASA. He urged NASA to release more of the data
needed for a better analysis.
Citing people familiar with the research, the AP reported earlier that the
data showed events like near-collisions and runway interference occur far
more frequently than previously recognized.
The data was based on interviews with about 8,000 pilots per year from 2001
until the end of 2004. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said Monday the
survey was poorly managed and told reporters the traveling public shouldn't
care about the data.
"It's hard for me ... to see any data here that the traveling public would
care about or ought to care about," Griffin said.
Griffin dismissed suggestions NASA chose to release the data late on New
Year's Eve, when the public is distracted by holidays and news organizations
are thinly staffed.
"We didn't deliberately choose to release on the slowest news day of the
year," Griffin said.
NASA drew harsh criticism from Congress and news organizations for keeping
the information secret. Rejecting an AP request under the Freedom of
Information Act, NASA explained that it did not want to undermine public
confidence in the airlines or hurt airline fortunes.
Griffin later overruled his staff and promised Congress he would release at
least some data by the end of the year.
NASA's survey, the National Aviation Operations Monitoring System, was
intended to see whether it could help identify problems and prevent
accidents. Survey planners said it was unique because it was a random survey
with an 80 percent response rate and it did not rely on pilots to
voluntarily report safety incidents.
Griffin said NASA never intended to analyze the data it collected, but
planned to pass its methodology to the aviation community.
Pilots were asked how many times they encountered safety incidents in flight
and on the ground, such as near-collisions, equipment failure, runway
interference, unruly passengers or trouble communicating with the tower.
Griffin outraged some NASA employees by criticizing the project and saying
its methodology was not properly verified. Survey experts who worked on it
said they used state-of-the-art industry techniques and carefully validated
it.
NASA's handling of the matter prompted a congressional investigation and
separate investigations by its inspector general and by a union representing
NASA workers.
The FAA has questioned the project's results showing more safety incidents
than the FAA's own data, saying it reflected pilots' subjective opinions
over time.
"It's just something that we're going to have to try and understand," said
Peggy Gilligan, a senior FAA official, in a recent telephone interview. "We
are always interested in any kind of safety data, but we always want to look
at it in terms of its quality, its quantity and how we're going to use it
and what assumptions underlie it."
She noted NASA's interview questions didn't track specifically with FAA
report language and said pilot responses were their subjective views over
30- to 90-day time frames.
Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., chairman of the House Science and Technology
Committee, urged NASA to finish reviewing the data for further release as
soon as possible.
Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., who heads that committee's investigations and
oversight panel, said pilots who wanted their views known have been done a
disservice because the scrubbed data can't be analyzed by anyone for air
safety trends.
NASA Releases Pilot Survey
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
NASA grudgingly released some results Monday from an $11.3 million federal
air safety study it previously withheld from the public over concerns it
would upset travelers and hurt airline profits. The data reflects hundreds
of cases where pilots flew too close to other planes, plunged from altitude
or landed at airports without clearance.
NASA published the findings - contained in 16,208 pages - but did not
provide a roadmap to understand them, making it cumbersome for any thorough
analysis by outsiders. Released on New Year's Eve, the unprecedented
research conducted over nearly four years relates to safety problems
identified by some 25,000 commercial pilots and more than 4,000 private
pilots interviewed by telephone.
The results from commercial pilots appeared to reflect in part at least
1,266 incidents in which aircraft flew within 500 feet of each other,
generally considered a near miss; at least 1,312 cases where pilots suddenly
dropped or climbed inadvertently more than 300 feet in flight; and 166
reports of pilots landing without clearance at an airport with an active
control tower. The Associated Press matched the data to the questionnaire
that was used to interview pilots and was obtained separately by the AP.
The data also reflected 513 reports of hard landings and 4,267 cases of
aircraft hitting birds.
Because NASA scrambled the data, it was impossible to determine whether
multiple pilots might be reporting the same incidents, and a key expert said
the numbers appeared inflated. NASA also did not present the data so
researchers could project survey results to overall safety trends.
The data that NASA released was "intentionally designed to prevent people
from analyzing the rates properly and are designed to entrap analysts into
computing rates that are much higher than the survey really shows," said Jon
Krosnick, a Stanford University professor and survey expert who helped
design the project for NASA. He urged NASA to release more of the data
needed for a better analysis.
Citing people familiar with the research, the AP reported earlier that the
data showed events like near-collisions and runway interference occur far
more frequently than previously recognized.
The data was based on interviews with about 8,000 pilots per year from 2001
until the end of 2004. NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said Monday the
survey was poorly managed and told reporters the traveling public shouldn't
care about the data.
"It's hard for me ... to see any data here that the traveling public would
care about or ought to care about," Griffin said.
Griffin dismissed suggestions NASA chose to release the data late on New
Year's Eve, when the public is distracted by holidays and news organizations
are thinly staffed.
"We didn't deliberately choose to release on the slowest news day of the
year," Griffin said.
NASA drew harsh criticism from Congress and news organizations for keeping
the information secret. Rejecting an AP request under the Freedom of
Information Act, NASA explained that it did not want to undermine public
confidence in the airlines or hurt airline fortunes.
Griffin later overruled his staff and promised Congress he would release at
least some data by the end of the year.
NASA's survey, the National Aviation Operations Monitoring System, was
intended to see whether it could help identify problems and prevent
accidents. Survey planners said it was unique because it was a random survey
with an 80 percent response rate and it did not rely on pilots to
voluntarily report safety incidents.
Griffin said NASA never intended to analyze the data it collected, but
planned to pass its methodology to the aviation community.
Pilots were asked how many times they encountered safety incidents in flight
and on the ground, such as near-collisions, equipment failure, runway
interference, unruly passengers or trouble communicating with the tower.
Griffin outraged some NASA employees by criticizing the project and saying
its methodology was not properly verified. Survey experts who worked on it
said they used state-of-the-art industry techniques and carefully validated
it.
NASA's handling of the matter prompted a congressional investigation and
separate investigations by its inspector general and by a union representing
NASA workers.
The FAA has questioned the project's results showing more safety incidents
than the FAA's own data, saying it reflected pilots' subjective opinions
over time.
"It's just something that we're going to have to try and understand," said
Peggy Gilligan, a senior FAA official, in a recent telephone interview. "We
are always interested in any kind of safety data, but we always want to look
at it in terms of its quality, its quantity and how we're going to use it
and what assumptions underlie it."
She noted NASA's interview questions didn't track specifically with FAA
report language and said pilot responses were their subjective views over
30- to 90-day time frames.
Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., chairman of the House Science and Technology
Committee, urged NASA to finish reviewing the data for further release as
soon as possible.
Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.C., who heads that committee's investigations and
oversight panel, said pilots who wanted their views known have been done a
disservice because the scrubbed data can't be analyzed by anyone for air
safety trends.
