NASA boss Michael Griffin promised Congress on Wednesday to release to the public all the research data in a crucial air travel survey that does not contain what he described as confidential commercial information.

"The survey results we can legally release will be released, period," Griffin said.

The Associated Press revealed earlier this month that the U.S. government is withholding vital air safety information it obtained from a $11.3 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 an unsettling 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.

Griffin was blasted Wednesday by lawmakers from both sides. Apart from the disturbing answer NASA gave to the AP for withholding the information, the Congress also did not receive well Griffin's attempt to question the survey's validity. "We did not manage that project well," he told Congress. "We will fix it and we will try not to do it again."

"What I'm hearing you say is, we've just thrown $11 million down a rathole," answered Rep. Ben Chandler, D-Ky.

"I hope that is not the case, and I believe we should be able to get much that is useful from this data," Griffin said. "But there will be cause to question it from knowledgeable aviation experts."

Lawmakers also asked why it was necessary for them and the public to pressure NASA to release information which was of clear public interest.

The NASA survey can 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.