The Associated Press revealed Monday that the U.S. government is withholding vital air safety information it obtained from a $8.5 million survey which was administrated by NASA through phone interviews with 24,000 pilots over four years.

Apparently, those affiliated with the project got an e-mail, asking them to turn over any data to NASA and delete survey information from their personal computers. "Why then, given that benefit, would the government prefer to shut the program down?" Krosnick told ABC News. "Well, certainly one possibility -- that the rates of events are in some cases are higher than people might expect."

The allegations first revealed by AP were later confirmed by several major press outlets. After it filed a request to obtain the survey data over 14 months under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, AP received a dire response.

"Release of the requested data, which are sensitive and safety-related, could materially affect the public confidence in, and the commercial welfare of, the air carriers and general aviation companies whose pilots participated in the survey," a senior NASA official, associate administrator Thomas S. Luedtke, wrote in a final denial letter to the AP.

However, members of Congress said that was not actually a valid reason to withhold the information and announced they were also seeking a copy of the database and would hold hearings on the matter. Thus, the Congress has started to investigate this matter and ordered NASA to halt any destruction of records. "I cannot imagine any good public purpose being served by destroying records," Rep. Bart Gordon, D-Tenn., who is chair of the House Science and Technology committee, said in a statement. "The committee will get to the bottom of all of this."

Essentially, the NASA report apparently found out that there were twice as many bird strikes, near mid-air collisions and runway incursions as other government monitoring systems show.

Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) was also outraged at NASA's coverup: "Safety must come first and hiding from the truth won't make anyone safer."

The NASA survey can, quite interestingly, be traced back to Al Gore. It is the result of the National Aviation Operations Monitoring Service program, which grew out of a government goal to reduce aviation accidents by 80 percent over 10 years. This particular goal was set by a then-Gore-chaired aviation commission in 1997.

Captain John Prater, president of the Air Line Pilot's Association, announced that pilots fully support the release of data.