1/5/08

NASA Survey

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently released the results of a survey conducted among airline pilots. The release of the results was delayed because NASA officials thought the findings would scare airline passengers. Here are some of the numbers as reported by the Associated Press.

The survey showed:
  • 1,266 incidents in which aircraft flew within 500 feet of each other (near miss)
  • 1,312 cases where pilots suddenly dropped or climbed accidentally more than 300 feet in flight
  • 166 reports of pilots landing without clearance (permission) at an airport
What is your interpretation of this data? Do you find it scary? Can you tell the true meaning of these numbers? What additional information would help make sense of the information?

2 comments:

Tujunga Doug said...

Hi Ms. Billett, if you look at this flight animation (url below) of all the flights that occure in the US in a single day, the statistics don't scare me at all.

http://flightaware.com/analysis/allflights_movie.rvt

Have a nice Math Day,
Mr. Moore

Anonymous said...

Hello. This post is likeable, and your blog is very interesting, congratulations :-). I will add in my blogroll =). If possible gives a last there on my site, it is about the CresceNet, I hope you enjoy. The address is http://www.provedorcrescenet.com . A hug.