NASA Wants To Destroy Safety Data

If the government collected data that indicated that air safety was more risky than previously thought, would you expect it to destroy the data?

That's exactly what is happening at NASA!

Anxious to avoid upsetting air travelers, NASA is withholding results from an unprecedented national survey of pilots that found safety problems like near collisions and runway interference occur far more frequently than the government previously recognized.

Just last week, NASA ordered the contractor that conducted the survey to purge all related data from its computers. NASA directed its contractor Battelle Memorial Institute, along with subcontractors, on Thursday to return any project information and then purge it from their computers before October 30.

NASA said nothing it discovered in the survey warranted notifying the Federal Aviation Administration immediately.

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.

A senior NASA official, associate administrator Thomas S. Luedtke, said revealing the findings could damage the public's confidence in airlines and affect airline profits.

"If the airlines aren't safe I want to know about it," said Rep. Brad Miller, D-North Carolina, chairman of the House Science and Technology investigations and oversight subcommittee. "I would rather not feel a false sense of security because they don't tell us."

So... the reason the data is being destroyed is that it might "affect airline profits"?

Doesn't sound like a good reason to me!