Gordon Seeks Copy of Aviation Safety Report

October 23, 2007, WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon is seeking a copy of a NASA study reported to show serious concerns about the state of aviation safety in the United States.

According to recent news reports, the NASA study on aviation reveals a higher incidence of planes striking birds and more close calls in mid-air than has been observed in other safety studies. NASA has not made the survey results public.

“Drug manufacturers can’t hide data from the public if trials show the drug is dangerous, but that’s exactly what NASA is doing by keeping this safety study from the public,” said Gordon, chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee.

“NASA spent $8 million and six years compiling a survey and collecting more than 20,000 responses from pilots. It’s been three years since those responses were collected, but NASA has still not released the results. It’s wrong to sit on safety data that could help us improve commercial aviation and ensure safer skies for air travelers.”

The NASA survey was designed to identify emerging safety issues before an accident or system failure could occur. It was intended to target vulnerabilities, such as last month’s computer failure in Memphis that shut down air travel throughout the Southeast.

Gordon’s committee has contacted NASA to warn the agency not to destroy any of the information related to the aviation safety survey. The committee will hold a hearing on the subject on Oct. 30.

“You cannot improve the safety of commercial aviation by trying to sweep bad news under the rug,” said Gordon. “We need to get the results of these surveys as soon as possible. Then we can make any adjustments we need to so that people can feel safe in the air.”