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Rant: found out 90% of plane crash data is hidden behind paywalls
I was looking into that 2014 Malaysia Airlines thing again and stumbled on a stat that blew my mind. The CIA has a database called the Aviation Safety Reporting System that logs near misses and incidents. But you literally have to pay thousands of dollars to access the full reports. I found this out from a whistleblower site called the Aviation Herald that posted a screenshot of the fee schedule. How can the public trust aviation safety when the real number of close calls is locked away? Am I the only one who thinks this is a huge red flag?
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jana_scott1mo ago
Wait, isn't that basically hiding how often planes almost crash from the people flying on them?
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reese_nelson1mo ago
So if they're not hiding it, why isn't this stuff already publicly available somewhere else, like through the FAA or airline safety reports? Seems like the public already pays for the data through taxes and ticket prices, so we should get access to it. But instead we get a watered down version that nobody can actually check themselves. Who benefits from keeping the raw numbers under lock and key?
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