The National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies was asked by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to perform an independent assessment of NASAs National Aviation Operations Monitoring Service (NAOMS) project, which was a survey administered to pilots from April 2001 through December 2004. To conduct this review, the NRC established the Committee on NASAs National Aviation Operations Monitoring Service (NAOMS) Project: An Independent Assessment, consisting of experts from the fields of aviation safety, aviation operations (including several pilots), survey methodology, and statistics. The committee reviewed various aspects of the NAOMS project, including the survey methodology, and conducted a limited analysis of the publicly available survey data. Sample surveys have been used routinely by federal agencies to collect and analyze data in order to inform policy decisions and assess national needs. They can also be used effectively to provide statistically valid information on rates and trends of events (such as bird strikes or rejected takeoffs) that are potentially related to aviation safety. In this context, surveys have several advantages over other sources of data: for example, they could provide reliable information about all segments of civilian aviation and characterize the safety of general aviation (GA) flights and the safety of the flights of other segments of aviation where data are limited. Further, government-sponsored surveys can produce data that are accessible to the public and can be analyzed regularly and independently. However, past experience in the government sector indicates that successful large-scale surveys typically require a substantial commitment of time and resources to develop, refine, and improve the survey methodology and to ensure that the survey provides useful and high-quality data. Several aspects of the NAOMS survey design were consistent with generally accepted practices and principles in survey design, and the committee finds these aspects to be reasonable and appropriate. These include the choice of a cross-sectional design, the computer-assisted telephone interview (CATI) method, and the use of professionally trained interviewers. 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 the reported non-zero counts of events and reported flight legs and hours flown had implausibly large values, suggesting that the NAOMS survey did not take full advantage of this feature of CATI.
Assessment of NASA's National Aviation Operations Monitoring Service
2009
160 pages
Report
No indication
English
Air Transportation , Aircraft , Space Technology , NASA , Monitoring service , National Aviation Operations , Assessment , National Aviation Operations Monitoring Service , National Research Council (NRC) , National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) , National Aviation Operation Monitoring Service (NAOMS) project
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