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An Assessment of NASA's National Aviation Operations Monitoring Service (2009) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction and Overview
Pages 3-6

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From page 3...
... That commission was created to "study matters involving aviation safety and security, including air traffic control and to develop a strategy to improve aviation safety and security, both domes tically and internationally."1 In its report, the commission touched on almost all aspects of the aviation industry and made 57 recommendations in the areas of improving aviation safety, making air traffic control safer and more efficient, improving security for travelers, and responding to aviation disasters. Several of these recommendations can be linked to the NAOMS project, but recommendation 1.1 is of particular relevance: Government and industry should establish a national goal to reduce the aviation fatal accident rate by a factor of five within ten years and conduct safety research to support that goal.
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From page 4...
... All data provided by NAOMS respondents were held in confidence. NAOMS maintained records of survey participants, but there is no linkage in NAOMS data repositories between the names of past respondents and the data that they provided.9 To maintain the confidentiality of the survey participants, NASA released only redacted versions of the survey data.
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From page 5...
... A CATI system has the potential to incorporate checks for unlikely or implausible values during the interview process. However, the committee found that substantial fractions of responses had implausibly large values for reported hours and flight legs flown as well as event counts, suggesting that the NAOMS survey did not take full advantage of this feature of CATI.
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From page 6...
... Assessing the utility of the NAOMS data based on heavily redacted data is not an easy task, and it is further complicated by NASA's release of multiple data sets under different redaction methods. Further, as pointed out by the Government Accountability Office's review of NAOMS: "The project staff and contractors did not assemble a coordinated, clear history detail ing the project's management that would facilitate evaluation of the overall air carrier pilot survey." 10 The lack of documentation and the delays in obtaining some documents made it difficult for the committee to obtain a full understanding of the steps taken and decisions made (including their rationale)
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Key Terms

  • naoms survey
  • national aviation
  • aviation operations
  • operations monitoring
  • monitoring service

  • naoms data
  • naoms project
  • survey methodology
  • battelle memorial
  • memorial institute

  • naoms team
  • redacted data
  • event rates
  • sample surveys
  • aviation industry

  • survey questionnaires
  • survey participants
  • government accountability
  • research study
  • nasa released

  • redacted versions
  • potential utility
  • traffic control
  • track trends
  • redaction methods

  • house commission
  • air traffic
  • improve aviation
  • aviation disasters
  • improving aviation


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