FAA wants to keep information on bird strikes secret

The United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has proposed to keep information about bird strikes secret.

The Federal Aviation Administration, the an agency of the United States Department of Transportation empowered to regulate and supervise all aspects of civil aviation in the US, is contemplating adding bird strikes to the categories of information where those who report it are guaranteed privacy, the US media has reported.

Though the FAA has treated reports on bird strikes as confidential, it has not formally classified those reports as “secret.”

The Federal Aviation Administration argues, say reports in the American media, that airlines and airports would stop reporting bird strikes if information were made public.

Reporting bird strikes is voluntary. The Federal Aviation Administration had rejected, 10 years ago, a recommendation made by the United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) to make reporting bird strikes mandatory.

It was in January 2009 that bird strikes attracted widespread public attention when an airliner of US Airways lost power in both engines shortly after taking off from New York’s LaGuardia Airport. Captain Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot, guided the crippled US Airways’ Flight 1549 to a safe crash-landing in the Hudson River, thus saving all 155 people on board.
The American media also reported that the Federal Aviation Administration’s move to restrict access to records on bird strikes has drawn severe criticism from groups and individuals advocating safety and access to public records.

A report in the US newspaper USA Today said that the Federal Aviation Administration’s proposal would bar release of its extensive record of bird strikes dating back to 1990 “since the agency is concerned that information on bird strikes could mislead the public and its release could prompt some airports and others not to report incidents.”

Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, was quoted by USA Today as remarking that she was “flabbergasted” by the FAA’s move.

Paul Eschenfelder, who teaches a course in airport bird management, told the newspaper: “I think recent evidence shows that the risk of bird strikes is rising. So far, the FAA has not done enough to address the problem, and keeping the data secret would not help at all.”

ABC Television quoted William Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation, as saying that the Federal Aviation Administration’s move for confidentiality on bird strikes would help the agency gather data, but demanded that that the FAA should release “aggregated data on bird strikes to the public and academics.” (Flight Safety Foundation is an independent, non-profit, international organisation conducting research, auditing, education, advocacy and publishing in order to improve aviation safety.)
The public has time till April 20, 2009, to comment on the FAA’s proposed change on access to data on bird strikes.