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Imagine if our government spent $8.5-million on a safety project that found problems with U.S. air travel (problems like near-collisions and runway interference)…and then, they decided NOT to release this information. Crazy, huh? But that’s exactly what has happened. This safety project was overseen, then dumped, by NASA (yes, the space agency). As part of this project, NASA’s team interviewed 24,000 pilots. And according to the Associated Press, these pilots told NASA they were involved in many more dangerous incidents than reflected in FAA numbers. But NASA never released any of this data; according to Thomas S. Luedtke, a senior NASA official, the information is being withheld essentially for our protection, because it”could materially affect the public confidence in…the air carriers and general aviation companies.” Personally, my confidence is already a little shaken, just by the fact that this information is not being released. A congressman from North Carolina has said, “There is a faint odor about it all.” Faint? Odor? Let’s speak English: this stinks! |
It stinks because basically, they’re saying we, the flying public, cannot handle the truth. Well, maybe we COULD handle it, if we had a better idea what the truth IS. Does this NASA data say there are twice as many near-collisions than we know about? Or that there are 200-times as many? Or 2,000? Give us passengers a little credit for intelligence. I say we CAN handle the truth, and make good decisions based on that truth.
But that’s the problem, pretty much throughout the air travel industry: passengers get little credit for any intelligence. You see it again and again, everytime a flight is delayed or canceled: passengers are not told why this is happening, and in the case of delays, passengers are rarely told when the flight will resume. Sure, once in awhile, you’ll get some information (”the flight will resume in 1-hour”) but face it, how often is that information correct?? Better communication is something I’ve been advocating for a long time, without much success.
But let me add a personal note here, and tell you the story of an airline that DOES believe we CAN handle the truth. Not so long ago, my wife was traveling on Southwest, and her plane was involved in a near-collision. It couldn’t have been too near, because she wasn’t even aware of it. In fact, she only learned about it when Southwest sent her a letter apologizing for the incident, along with 2-free round-trip tickets. She’s continued to fly Southwest ever since.
So, come on, NASA: tell us the truth. We can take it. The real question is, can YOU take it? And can the FAA take it, if this data shows things are worse than its own figures?
Readers, what do y0u say? Would you like to be informed about this NASA information, or, kept in the dark? Let me know.
UPDATE: NASA has now released a rather tepid statement, which says it’s going to re-visit the matter of whether or not to release this information. We shall see.
For whatever it’s worth, there was an award-winning series of articles about airline safety done by three newspapers here in Canada in 2006. The information presented was unsettling (probably the same sort of things that NASA does not want you to see), but it got the powers-that-be to tighten up a number of procedures.
You can read one of the many articles in this fine series
here.
Comment by Gary — October 27, 2007 @ 12:07 am
Comment by Rick Seaney — October 27, 2007 @ 12:21 am
The reason the FAA does not want these findings released is because they are working very hard to PRIVATIZE the Air Traffic Control System. If the “public” were aware of how much more unsafe our sky’s would be if Air Traffic were all run by computers, they would stand up and demand a stop to it! You need human eyes and brains to see an incident about to occur and decide the best ways to avoid/correct them. I hope this will educate all your subscribers, and they will use their voice to stop our government from continuing to work toward privatizing Air Traffic Control. Just think how 9-11-01 could have been different if not for the controllers hearing the hyjackers. the computers would not have heard Atta say “we have a bomb on board, and are returning to the airport” All planes would not have been grounded as quickly as they were, if at all. And who knows how many more targets would have been hit. Just things to think about, please stop the privatization of Air Traffic Control, before it is too late. By the way, I am not an Air Traffic Controller, but am married to one, so I know what really is going on.
Comment by Melissa — October 27, 2007 @ 1:00 pm
please define “near collision”. What would be the term used to describe another airplane in the air so near to my window seat that is I had 20/20 vision I could count the number of windows on the plane passing us or going on the other direction? This has happened twice to me. Once over the Atlantic…is there not more room to spread out the flight paths; and last week flying ATA over the Siera MTS.
Comment by Virginia Tawawili — October 27, 2007 @ 7:48 pm
Individual travelers *might* react rationally, but a large group, ESPECIALLY one expanded to include sensationalist media and spotlight-grabbing politicians, will not react reasonably at all.
Comment by Tim — October 29, 2007 @ 8:28 am