Hiding, rather than addressing, bad news

October 22, 2007

NASA conducted an unprecedented national survey, as part of an $8.5 million project, to gauge airline safety. The agency found problems such as near collisions and runway interference occur far more frequently than the government previously recognized.

In response, Bush administration officials are considering sweeping new safety regulations meant to inspire public confidence in air travel. No, no, I’m only kidding. Administration officials are actually withholding the results of the research, and hoping to bury the data. (thanks to S.W. for the tip)

NASA gathered the information under an $8.5 million safety project, through telephone interviews with roughly 24,000 commercial and general aviation pilots over nearly four years. Since ending the interviews at the beginning of 2005 and shutting down the project completely more than one year ago, the space agency has refused to divulge the results publicly.

Just last week, NASA ordered the contractor that conducted the survey to purge all related data from its computers. (emphasis added)

A senior NASA official, associate administrator Thomas S. Luedtke, acknowledged that the survey results “present a comprehensive picture of certain aspects of the U.S. commercial aviation industry,” but said it didn’t matter. The research painted an uncomfortable picture, so the information has to be buried. Anything else would “affect the public confidence” in air travel.

Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.), chairman of the House Science and Technology investigations and oversight subcommittee, told the AP, “If the airlines aren’t safe I want to know about it. I would rather not feel a false sense of security because they don’t tell us.” As for NASA’s decision to hide the data, Miller added, “There is a faint odor about it all.”

You think?

It’s hard to know exactly what the buried report showed, but according to the leaked information, pilots reported at least twice as many bird strikes, near mid-air collisions, and runway incursions, as compared to the data published by the FAA.

NASA’s argument — people will have less faith in air travel if they knew the truth — is not without merit. But the next step is the ridiculous one. If a comprehensive report points to specific problems, the answer is to address those problems.

As William Waldock, a safety science professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Phoenix, told the WaPo, “[The data] gives us an awareness of not just the extent of the problems, but probably in some cases that the problems are there at all. If their intent is to just let it sit there, that’s just a waste.”

I don’t agree with Ed Morrissey on much, but I heartily endorse this.

Since NASA has already spent the money on the survey, we should allow that data to get published so that the taxpayers who footed the bill can find out what pilots actually say about safety issues. Congress should ensure that NASA releases the findings so we can determine what needs to be done to make air travel even safer. For those who fly the airplanes and serve the customers, as well as for the customers themselves, NASA and the FAA owe us no less.

As for the bigger picture, if I had a nickel for every time Bush administration officials decided it’s better to hide bad news than to deal with it, I’d be a wealthy man.

Bush administration officials are considering sweeping new safety regulations meant to inspire public confidence in air travel. No, no, I’m only kidding.

I’d have more confidence if they did not intervene, seeing as how this is the cabal that presided over 9/11. I’d feel safer with a few Saudi Arabian nationals out on the runway with flashlights directing traffic.

Anything the Bush Laden Cabal touches turns to excrement or insipid death.

Sure, I’d like Congress to have access to the NASA data, but seeing as how Congressional subpoenas are no longer the law of the land, I won’t hold my breath for an investigation.

  • CB said: “As for the bigger picture, if I had a nickel for every time Bush administration officials decided it’s better to hide bad news than to deal with it, I’d be a wealthy man.””

    unless of course, the bad news plays nicely with the Bush administration fear mongering, and then of course it has to be released immediately through FOX – a sure fire way to alert the Republican base.

  • Nice of you to give Ed Morrissey a mention on your blog, Steve. I seem to have gotten on his bad side myself for quoting some data from you in his comments and gotten banned as a result. Oh well.

  • I’m not shocked. This is the same agency that ordered the destruction of the Saturn V blue prints and specs when the Space Shuttle program was being set up (done by Nixon’s appointee because they wanted the Space Shuttle program.) If one wants to go back to the moon as the Bushtard admin wants to do then they would have to start from scratch.

  • Miller added, “There is a faint odor about it all.”

    That faint odor wouldn’t be a whiff of sulfer, would it?

  • The Italian sociologist/economist Vilfredo Pareto famously said that governments follow predictable cycles. Before they obtain power, parties have many schemes for identifying and solving serious social problems. Once in power, however, their focus shifts to protecting their power positions. At first this may mean actually solving a problem or two, a holdover from pre-power rhetoric. Soon it becomes a matter of finding more and more clever ways to lie about solving problems. Often it isn’t an outright lie (“mission accomplished”) so much as it is burying information (NASA). When lying in either form finally fails, government turns from lies to physical force in order to silence the critics.

  • Hey, Congress is in charge of the pursestrings, so presumably Congress can demand to see what they bought, right?

    Well, that is, if they had spines.

  • As Bruno #2 points out, they go to extremes to scare the bejesus out of us when it comes to terror, or roguish states like Iran, but they’ll cover up something like this to protect our delicate sensibilities? I don’t think so.

    Put this under the corporate welfare category, concern for the bottom line of the airline industry, and to head off any movement toward further regulation.

  • Along the lines of hark (#8), I think that this may also fall into the category of protecting “e. coli conservatism” — we wouldn’t want the public to see that airline deregulation has a downside, because we worship at the altar of deregulation.

  • No need to panic people. What happened is this: One of Bush’s buddies owns the company that conducted survey. Bush is a firm believer in people working to earn their keep so he would only give his friend 8 mil if he worked for it, but because Bush hated it when his teachers asked him to show his work, there was no way he was going to ask his friend to actually display the results. [/snark]

    The survey’s purpose was to develop a new way of tracking safety trends and problems the airline industry could address. The project was shelved when NASA cut its budget as emphasis shifted to send astronauts to the moon and Mars.

    Nice to see their priorities are straight.

    I’m glad to see this story is getting a lot of play. I’ve come to expect very little from the AP but every so often a writer goes for the nads:

    In its space program, NASA has a deadly history of playing down safety issues. Investigators blamed the 1986 and 2003 shuttle disasters on poor decision making, budget cuts and improperly minimizing risks.

    Heh.

  • If enough people decide to stay off the planes, the airline industry wouldn’t be able to afford those million dollar golden parchutes for their executives—at the cost of diminished maintenance regimens and extended pilot flight-hours. Besides, people might actually discover that they can do things without getting on those planes at all!!!

  • “The research painted an uncomfortable picture, so the information has to be buried. Anything else would ‘affect the public confidence.’”

    In public relations one quickly finds out that the truth has an odd way of coming out eventually and it is far easier to take a black eye quickly and get it over with than to lie and have a much bigger blow-up. Moreover, by exposing a problem and trumpeting your plan to deal with it, the public instead gains confidence. Believe me, no matter what these guys think public confidence is being affected. I’ll never be able to vote for a Republican again for any position in government, ever.

  • What all the report and comments have ignored is that airline fatalities – something that is
    extremely un-hideable, – are down dramatically in the last few years. So this report could have been
    reported with that background. Makes the NASA response more puzzling.

    I did write airline fatalities, and meant large craft.
    I am not as sure about general aviation or very small commercial planes’ fatality rates.

  • Why am I envisioning an administration or transportation dept. spokes-moron say sometime in the future, “No one could have foreseen this kind of catastrophic event” ?

  • The scary thing about all this… we all know how it will play out. Sometime in the near future there will be a mid-air collision hundreds of people will be killed. There will be hand-wringing and hair-pullingand pearl-clutching.There will be screaming and screeching from Faux news and their ilk about how it must be terrorism. A few days later our government will assure us it was not terrorism. There will be congressional hearings and it will turn out that everyone knew there were these sorts of problems, but no one could have anticipated that a whole bunch of close calls would lead to a catostrophic event. Then it will be blamed on pilot error, human failings. etc,etc,etc. This report will be dusted off and finally published and there wil be shock!, shock !,I tell you at the airlines and in the halls of government. Brian Williams, Katie Couric, Anderson Cooper et al will host their nightly newscasts from some vantage point near, but not too near the airfield abbaittoir to show the horror and the bright and shiny red lights of the rescue vehicles, but none of the carnage. Family members will be hounded by the concern trolls asking them how they feel. And in a few days Brittny will do something stupid, or some blond teenager will be missing, or some farmer in Oklahoma will find a watermellon that looks like Jesus, and the media will run off to show whatever the new bright and shiny event happens to be, to pull the public away from the tragedy. If you don’t think that’s how this is going to play, might I remind you of the bridge collapse in Minneapolis and the levees of N’awlins. A year later we’ll be presented with a scene from the same field, but with an artists rendering of what a new memorial to the victims of the tragedy will look like in time for the 5th anniversary of the event.

    E.coli conservatism rears it’s ugly head again. Congressional hearings please. And failing that Hello, Melanie Sloan and the CREW folks, Get on this please.

  • As the old saying goes, “If you’ve time to spare, go by air.” I’ve given up traveling by air – it is so painful on every item involved that it outweighs the time saved over driving. And safety is one that makes driving even more attractive.

    And from the pilots I know, the NASA report is pretty conservative.

    Just remember – you get the air travel you pay for. Just like everything else.

  • I’ve given up traveling by air – it is so painful on every item involved that it outweighs the time saved over driving. — Tom Cleaver, @ 16

    Not always possible. When I Googled driving directions from my little VA town to Warsaw (Poland), they took me to NYC and told me to swim across the Atlantic, before resuming the drive 🙂

    Not that driving is all that safe, either. I wonder what the comparable fatalities are (ie how many per 1000 flying and how many per 1000 driving)…

  • What a terrible dilemma for BushCo. On the one hand they hate to do anything to hurt their Big Business friends at the Airlines, on the other hand, if no one travels more business will be conducted by telephone, web and videoconference, where the carriers can surreptitiously provide records (and perhaps content as well) to BushCo. Whatever is a despot to do?

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