National Airspace System (NAS) isn’t as safe as the FAA would have you believe

NASA, with the help of it’s Aviation Safety Reporting System
(ASRS), a few thousand interviews and $8,500,000 dollars has
collected a stockpile of evidence that the National Airspace
System (NAS) isn’t as safe as the FAA would have you
believe. The media is catching on.


Officials at NASA are engaged in damage control, and well
they should be. The federal aeronautics and space agency has
risked its research credibility with its rationale for
sitting on the findings of an air-safety survey that took
years and $8.5 million to conduct. The Associated Press
reported this week that NASA had rejected its request for
data regarding the agency’s interviews with 24,000
commercial and private pilots. The NASA explanation for
withholding the findings cited the potential detriment to
the welfare of the airline industry and public confidence in
the aviation system.

Was it the idea, then, to maintain false confidence in
aviation safety by suppressing disturbing findings? The
agency’s chief administrator has since declared NASA never
would put industry profits ahead of issues of public safety.
If so, trying to keep a close secret was not the smartest
way to project public safety as first priority.

…The information gleaned by the Associated Press
suggests the pilot survey revealed more problems and
dangerous incidents than are reported to the Federal
Aviation Administration and other government agencies.

…NASA’s decision to sit on the findings is all the more
disturbing because the information would be an invaluable
addition to other well-documented concerns. Among these are
congested airways, outmoded equipment and a shortage of
experienced air-traffic controllers.