Union says NASA chief criticism of agency's pilot survey was erroneous

A union representing NASA employees accuses the agency's administrator of unfairly tarnishing agency employees by disparaging and misrepresenting a federal air safety project. NASA weeks ago drew intense criticism for withholding results of the research, fearing it would upset travelers and hurt airline profits.

The union disputed Michael Griffin's criticisms of the program, in which thousands of commercial and private pilots were interviewed. It said his comments to Congress at an oversight hearing in October appeared to reflect fears the pilots might report to NASA higher rates of safety problems than are recorded by Federal Aviation Administration's own monitoring.

"Our primary concern is that the American taxpayer will be deprived of the fruits of millions of dollars and years of valuable aviation safety research and development because of repeated judgment failures by NASA's senior leadership," the union said in a letter sent late last week to the House Science and Technology Committee.

The union said Griffin's testimony before the committee Oct. 31 was "shocking" and that its own investigation found "no valid scientific basis for the administrator's technical criticism" of the National Aviation Operations Monitoring System.

The hearing left the impression taxpayer money was wasted on the $11.3 million project, "an unacceptable conclusion to leave hanging in the air," said Matt Biggs, legislative director of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers. The union represents many NASA scientists, engineers and technical employees.

Agency spokesman David Mould said NASA stands by Griffin's statements to Congress. "If someone disagrees, we still believe what we said. It was correct," he said.