Editor: The Federal Aviation Administration has been illegally hiding raw data on bird strikes, the number one cause of aviation disaster, since 2007 by refusing all requests to share this data since that time. During 2007, the US suffered 7,666 bird strikes, and from 1990 to 2004 over 63,000 wildlife strikes were reported to the FAA.
The FAA is proposing that such information be excluded from the Freedom of Information Act. This is not a matter of national security, so it is more likely due in part to the FAA’s Air Space Redesign that reroutes traffic over a bird sanctuary, not to mention low routes over thousands of suburban homes – over which birds fly. Thus from the FAA’s standpoint this is a public relations disaster, where as for those home-owners (not to mention the birds), it may well be a matter of life and death, and at very least, quality of life.
I propose that if congress passes such an exemption from the FOIA, the Act may as well be renamed since freedom will have little to do with it. May I suggest the IWWTGYA (Information We’re Willing to Give You Act.)
Daniel Wells, Tracy