HOW SAFE IS IT TO FLY?

Not very-- at least not according to a reluctantly-released (some would say "covered-up") $8.5 million survey of thousands of airline pilots by NASA in 2005. But the results were never released and it took the Associated Press until now to squeeze them out of the Bush Regime (by filing a Freedom of Information Act request). Although there's been a lot of back and forth and embarrassed bureaucrats and denials on the political level, it looks like the survey was covered up because NASA thought the release would frighten the flying public and have a negative impact on the bottom line of the airline companies.

Release of the requested data, which are sensitive and safety-related, could materially affect the public confidence in, and the commercial welfare of, the air carriers and general aviation companies whose pilots participated in the survey.

Do you think the Bush Regime would put the financial safety of the airline companies ahead of the public's right to know if flying was safe? According to the NY Times our old pal, Rep Brad Miller, chairman of the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee of the House Committee on Science and Technology, someone I would certainly trust far more than any cronies of anyone in the Regime, intends to find out.

The chairman of Brad's committee, a pro-business, conservative Democrat from Tennessee, Bart Gordon, was aghast. "This is like a drug manufacturer finding out through trials that there are problems with a drug and not making the public aware because they don't want to reduce the sales of the drug or scare the public. It could be enormously helpful in a wide range of areas in trying to understand mishaps."