[Infowarrior] - Redacted Air-Traffic Safety Survey Released

[Richard Forno]

Redacted Air-Traffic Safety Survey Released
NASA Downplays Pilots' Complaints About Fatigue, Security

By Del Quentin Wilber
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 1, 2008; D01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/31/AR2007123101
689_pf.html

NASA yesterday released partial results of a massive air-safety survey of
airline pilots who repeatedly complained about fatigue, problems with
air-traffic controllers, airport security, and the layouts of runways and
taxiways.

Reacting to criticism about its initial decision to withhold the database
for fear of harming airlines' bottom lines, NASA released a heavily redacted
version of the survey on its Web site yesterday afternoon. But the space and
aeronautics agency published the information in a way that made it difficult
to analyze.

NASA Administrator Michael Griffin told reporters in a conference call that
the agency had no plans to study the database for trends. He said NASA
conducted the survey only to determine whether gathering information from
pilots in such a way was worthwhile.

Despite the lack of analysis by NASA scientists, Griffin said there was
nothing in the database that should concern air travelers. "It's hard for me
to see any data the traveling public would care about or ought to care
about," he said. "We were asked to release the data, and we did."

The NASA database, which included more than 10,000 pages of information, was
based on extensive telephone polling of airline and general aviation pilots
about incidents ranging from engine failures and bird strikes to fires
onboard planes and encounters with severe turbulence. The survey cost about
$11 million and was conducted from 2001 to 2004.

The survey included narrative responses by pilots, but NASA released the
information in such a way as to make it impossible to determine details of
what the pilots were describing. The narratives sometimes included terse
answers such as "fatigue" and "crew rest."

Others were slightly more extensive.

"Pilots asleep on flight deck is a problem," one pilot said. Another
suggested that survey workers ask pilots how often they fall asleep in the
cockpit.

The reports included discussions of pilots' difficulties in talking to
controllers in busy airspace. Air traffic control "capacity inadequate to
handle traffic load," one pilot reported.

"There are too many people on the frequency, and they are causing a safety
problem," another pilot responded.

NASA had refused to release the data several months ago in response to a
request by the Associated Press, saying publication might affect the
public's confidence in the airlines. NASA was roundly criticized by members
of Congress and aviation safety experts for refusing to publish the survey.

Rep. Bart Gordon (D-Tenn.), chairman of the House Science and Technology
Committee, said yesterday that the agency should not have redacted so much
of the data nor released it in a format that made it difficult to analyze.
He promised more hearings into the matter.

"It was just an effort to get something out the door rather than a serious
effort to provide transparency," Gordon said. "It was heavily redacted, and
there is not much usefulness to the data until we get more information."

Jim Hall, a former chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board,
also criticized the way NASA released its database. "When a government
agency is not transparent with the American people, particularly on an issue
like safety, they are not fulfilling their responsibilities and earning
their pay," Hall said.

The debate over the database comes as U.S. commercial aviation is enjoying
its safest period in history, according to Federal Aviation Administration
officials. The last major fatal U.S. air crash occurred in August 2006.

FAA officials said they had no plans to launch an independent study of the
survey. But the FAA is looking at ways to "integrate the data with the
existing data we have," said Laura Brown, an FAA spokeswoman.

Outside safety experts said analyzing the database could provide helpful
clues that might prevent a crash. "I hope that somebody will have the
initiative to crunch the data and be able to put together trends," said John
Cox, a former investigator with the Air Line Pilots Association, a major
pilots union.