NASA's decision to withhold the results of a safety study sought under the US Freedom of Information Act was an error of judgement.
It may be true that NASA was provided in confidence with the individual reports that enabled it to carry out this operational survey, and it is crucial that it respects that agreement. But its duty to those who filed the reports was discharged as soon as they had been de-identified and thus, effectively reduced to units of data. To say - as NASA has done - to a valid request for information that "the release of the requested data...could materially affect the public confidence in, and the commercial welfare of, the air carriers and general aviation companies whose pilots participated in this survey," is extraordinary.
It is not in NASA's remit to protect the reputation of the air transport industry. And if it is true that the survey revealed that one of the problems with the existing reporting systems is that many incidents go unreported, then the Federal Aviation Administration needs to find out why. But NASA didn't pass the results to the FAA and it didn't ask for it. What was the information gathered for, then?
Some FAA officials have implied the way this data was collected somehow lowers its value. But even if that supposition had some foundation, would it deprive the data of all value? That seems rather unlikely for a survey that has produced an invaluable indication that crews are under-reporting on operational safety issues. And how will the FAA know what value the data has until it has had a chance to view it?
The FAA needs to know - and the public has a right to know - why crews are under-reporting and whether there are specific incident types that they tend to under-report. The reasons for failure to report an incident can range from lack of crew time to file, to a perception that certain events are not worth reporting (belief that they don't matter or that no action will be taken) or the fear that the operator will punish the reporter. Whatever the reasons, the existing reporting systems need to be reviewed in the light of these findings.
NASA now says it is reviewing what information it can legally release, according to the confidential terms under which it solicited the reports from which data has been assembled. The organisation is doing this on the grounds that "NASA should focus on how we can provide information to the public, not how we can withhold it". Enough said.
Source: Flight International
