NASA survey shows hundreds of close calls

[unhappycamper]

NASA survey shows hundreds of close calls
By Rita Beamish - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday Jan 1, 2008 10:06:21 EST

NASA grudgingly released some results Monday from an $11.3 million federal air safety study it previously withheld from the public over concerns it would upset travelers and hurt airline profits. The data reflects hundreds of cases where pilots flew too close to other planes, plunged from altitude or landed at airports without clearance.

NASA published the findings — contained in 16,208 pages — but did not provide a roadmap to understand them, making it cumbersome for any thorough analysis by outsiders. Released on New Year’s Eve, the unprecedented research conducted over nearly four years relates to safety problems identified by about 25,000 commercial pilots and more than 4,000 private pilots interviewed by telephone.

The results from commercial pilots appeared to reflect in part at least 1,266 incidents in which aircraft flew within 500 feet of each other, generally considered a near miss; at least 1,312 cases where pilots suddenly dropped or climbed inadvertently more than 300 feet in flight; and 166 reports of pilots landing without clearance at an airport with an active control tower. The Associated Press matched the data to the questionnaire that was used to interview pilots and was obtained separately by the AP.

The data also reflected 513 reports of hard landings and 4,267 cases of aircraft hitting birds.

Because NASA scrambled the data, it was impossible to determine whether multiple pilots might be reporting the same incidents, and a key expert said the numbers appeared inflated. NASA also did not present the data so researchers could project survey results to overall safety trends.


Rest of article at: http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/01/ap_nasasurvey_080101/