NASA administrator Michael D. Griffin says in a statement that he regrets the way information on air travel safety was withheld from the public eye. 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.

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.

Now, Griffin says, "This rationale was based on case law, but I do not agree with the way it was written. I regret the impression that NASA was in any way trying to put commercial interests ahead of public safety. That was not and will never be the case."

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. 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.

Meanwhile, pressure mounts from the Congress for NASA to publish the information. "It is part of NASA's job to make sure aviation is safe. It is not NASA's job to make airline travelers think that everything is fine or to protect airline profits," said Democratic Party Congressman Brad Miller. Also, the FAA tries to wash its hands clean of the whole scandal and said it played no role in trying to suppress the information.

While the Congress carries out a formal investigation, NASA ponders what information, if any, can be released to the public.