Congress seeks GAO review of NASA survey results

Congress is pressing NASA to release the results of a 2006 survey on improving aviation safety.

NASA conducted over 24,000 phone interviews with pilots to discuss safety issues that arose during flight. The goal was to help identify situations or events that precede airline incidents and determine how the pilots’ reports of those events compared to the information collected by the Federal Aviation Administration. NASA claims releasing these results may alarm air travelers and damage airline profits.

Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., head of the House Science and Technology Committee, is pushing the Government Accountability Office to investigate the NASA project further.

Gordon told the Associated Press:  "When the public pays for five years of government work designed to help us improve flying safety, I think the public deserves to get a report back on what was learned."