Oct. 23, 2007 - 21:28 MST

STILL IN A QUANDARY

And Virginia asks from the back of the room, "Is there a real Andrew in Diaryland ?" and right now about all I can say is, "Damnfino !" as my e-mail about where to send my dues is unanswered as yet.

Meanwhile the world goes on, heedless of small things and some large ones as well.

An article in today's Rocky Mountain News by Rita Beamish of the The Associated Press points out that we ain't as safe as we think -- apparently. The article is quoted in full herein:

NOT WANTING TO SPOOK YOU, U.S. HIDING RISKS OF FLYING

Moffet Field, Calif. -- "An unprecedented national survey of pilots bythe 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 roughly 24,000 commercial and general-aviation pilots over nearly four years."

Since shutting down he project more than one year ago, the space agency has refused to divulge its survey data publicly."

After The Associated Press disclosed details Monday about the survey and efforts to keep its results secret, NASA's chief said he will reconsider how much of the survey findings can be made public."

"NASA should focus on how we can provide information to the public, not on how we can withhold it," NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said in a statement. He said the agency's research and data "should be widely available and subject to review and scrutiny"

"Last week, NASA ordered the contractor that conducted the survey to purge all related data from its computers. Congress on Monday announced a formal investigation of the pilot survey and instructed NASA to halt destruction of records."

"Griffen said he already was ordering that all survey data be preserved."

"The AP heared about the NASA results from one person familiar with the survey who spoke on condition of anonymity because this person was not authorized to discuss them."

"A senior NASA official, associated administrator Thomas S. Luedtke, said earlier that revealing the findings could damage the public's confidence in airlines and affect airline PROFITS."

"Leudtke acknowledged that the survey results "present a comphrehensive picture of certain aspects of the U.S. commercial aviation industry."

The AP sought to obtain the the survey data over 14 months under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act."

"Release of the requested data, which are sensitive and safety-related, could materially affect the public confidence in, and the cmmercial welfare of, the air carriers and general aviation companies whose pilots participated in the survey," Ludtke wrote in a final denial letter to the AP."

"NASA also cited pilot confidentiality as a reason."

"Griffen said NASA will reconsider its denial of the data to the AP."

"Among other results, the pilots reported at least twice as many bird strikes, near midair collisions and runway incursions as other government monitoring systems show, according to a person familiar with the results who was not authorized to discuss them publicly."

"The survey also revealed higher-than-expected numers of pilots who experienced "in-close approach changes" -- potentially dangerous, last minute instructions to alter landing plans."

"Officials at the NASA Ames Research Center in California have said they want to publish their own report on the project by year's end."

"If the airlines aren't safe, I want to know about it," said Rep. Brad Miller, D-N.c., 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."

"Discussing NASA's decision not to release the survey data, Miller said: "THERE IS A FAINT ODOR ABOUT IT ALL."

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And our tax dollars financed all this razzmatazz. Hazarding a guess, it seems to me that our government machinery is without a governor that works and has no gears - - thus to the extreme of being shiftless. Maybe that is why all things governmental have to be kept secret perhaps ? ? ? ? ? ? ?

And what is wrong with the machinery of Diaryland, I don't know that either, - - - but I am STILL IN A QUANDARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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