MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. — An unprecedented national survey of pilots by the U.S. government has found that safety problems such as near collisions and runway interference occur far more frequently than previously recognized. But the government is withholding the information, fearful it would upset air travelers and hurt airline profits.
NASA gathered the information under an $8.5 million federal safety project, through telephone interviews with about 24,000 commercial and general aviation pilots over nearly four years. Since shutting down the project more than one year ago, the space agency has refused to divulge its survey data publicly.
Last week, NASA ordered the contractor that conducted the survey to purge all related data from its computers. Congress on Monday, launched a formal investigation and instructed NASA to keep all its data.
The Associated Press learned about the NASA results from one person familiar with the survey who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss them.
Associate NASA administrator Thomas Luedtke said revealing the findings could damage the public’s confidence in airlines and affect airline profits.
Among other results, the pilots reported at least twice as many bird strikes, near mid-air collisions and runway incursions as other government monitoring systems show, according to a person familiar with the results.
The survey also revealed higher-than-expected numbers of pilots who experienced potentially dangerous, last-minute instructions to alter landing plans.
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