The Office of Inspector General began looking into the saga of NASAs National Aviation Operations Monitoring Service (NAOMS) a week after NASA Chairman Michael Griffin said the data from the survey would be released publicly. Griffin was on the hot seat last week after The Associated Press ran a story in which a NASA official said it withheld results of the survey, which polled 29,000 pilots on their experiences in the air, because it didnt want to alarm the public or affect airline revenues. The OIG will look at the efficiency and taxpayer value of the survey, something which Griffin also called into question during the hearings, according to New Scientist magazine. New Scientist is reporting that Griffin told the committee the data were simply not credible because of the way the survey was conducted. Pilots contacted by the polling firm were allowed anonymity and that means its impossible to judge whether two or more pilots are reporting the same incident. The magazine suggests the skewed results may have led to the conclusion that aviation incidents were generally underreported. Meanwhile, the contractor which conducted the survey, Batelle Memorial Institute, said its work had been very high quality.
Inspector General Probes NASA Study
Key Takeaways:
- NASA's National Aviation Operations Monitoring Service (NAOMS) survey is under investigation by the Office of Inspector General after a NASA official admitted withholding results to avoid alarming the public or affecting airline revenues.
- NASA Chairman Michael Griffin publicly questioned the survey's credibility, efficiency, and taxpayer value, citing methodological flaws such as pilot anonymity preventing verification of unique incident reports.
- Despite Griffin's concerns that the survey's skewed results might have falsely indicated underreported aviation incidents, the contractor, Batelle Memorial Institute, asserted the high quality of its work.
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