Someone at the Federal Aviation Administration didn't get Barack Obama's memo on more transparency and less secrecy in government.
In one of the silliest ideas to come out of a government bureaucracy, the FAA is proposing that bird strikes on aircraft—such as the collision that brought down U.S. Airways flight 1549 in the Hudson River—be kept secret from the public.
The twisted logic behind this dunce of an idea is this: If bird strikes are secret, then pilots are more likely to report them so the FAA can use data for finding ways of keeping planes and birds apart. Reporting strikes is now voluntary. It should be mandatory, like any incident that hampers or interrupts normal aircraft operations.
It takes but a second to see just how impossible it is for bird strikes to be kept "secret" simply because of an FAA decree.
If a commercial airliner is a struck by birds, not only would the pilots know it, but in all probability the passengers will too, especially if an engine is disabled, a window is fractured or blood is spattered on the fuselage.
Then, of course, ground crews would see damage and blood. Air traffic controllers would know, if the pilot asked for special landing approval because of damage.
Airline maintenance crews making repairs to bird-caused damage would know. Airline insurance claims adjusters would know.
Airports responsible for chasing off birds would know.
And someone in the chain would undoubtedly tip off news media.
So much for an FAA bureaucrat's daffy notion of secrecy.
