The Associated Press reports that NASA may take as long as a year to publically release what thousands of airline pilots had to say about air safety in an unprecedented survey. The space agency says it could take that long to pore through more than 24,000 interviews and remove anything that could potentially help identify the pilots who were interviewed anonymously between 2001 and 2004. But some information is expected by the end of the year, as promised by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, possibly with fields of data removed pending conclusion of the vetting. U.S. lawmakers say “taking as long as a year to complete the release is totally unacceptable The taxpayers have paid for it, the data relates to public safety, and it should be made available without further delay while still ensuring confidentiality.” The space agency had previously decided to keep the National Aviation Operations Monitoring Service (NAOMS) study under wraps, saying the data might harm air carriers. The survey had polled commercial and general aviation pilots about safety issues. Press accounts said that the pilots reported at least twice as many bird strikes, near mid-air collisions and runway incursions as government monitoring systems show. Griffin agreed to give up once it is appropriately "scrubbed" to protect the anonymity of the pilots who were surveyed. NASA had originally decided to keep the data under wraps to protect the airline industry.