Great moments at NIMI

J. Barkley Rosser, Jr. rosserjb at jmu.edu
Sun May 16 13:38:36 PDT 1999


Michael,

Yes, I find it interesting that the fingers are finally starting to point more openly at the NIMA rather than the CIA. It's about time. Barkley Rosser -----Original Message----- From: Michael Pollak <mpollak at panix.com> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Date: Sunday, May 16, 1999 3:23 AM Subject: Great moments at NIMI


>
> Federal mapping agency has history of providing incomplete or
> inaccurate data
>
> Copyright © 199 Nando Media
> Copyright © 1999 Associated Press
>
> LOS ANGELES (May 15, 1999 10:32 p.m. EDT http://www.nandotimes.com) -
> The federal agency responsible for making charts and maps used by
> military pilots has a history of providing incomplete and inaccurate
> data, resulting in fatal mishaps such as the bombing of the Chinese
> Embassy in Yugoslavia and the slicing of a gondola cable at an Italian
> mountain resort by a U.S. military jet, the Los Angeles Times reported
> Sunday.
>
> The National Imagery and Mapping Agency and its predecessor
> organization have produced charts or maps that played a role in at
> least a dozen accidents since 1985, some involving fatalities and loss
> of military aircraft, according to documents and interviews reviewed
> by the Times.
>
> On May 7, fighter pilots using outdated maps attacked the Chinese
> Embassy in Belgrade, killing three journalists and injuring 20 people.
> The map had the embassy in the wrong place, although the Belgrade
> phone book and tourist maps had the correct address.
>
> "No database available to NIMA identified the targeted location as the
> location of the Chinese embassy," NIMA spokeswoman Laura Snow said
> Friday in a written response to the Times' questions.
>
> The accident remains under investigation.
>
> NIMA maps were a factor in three accidents in the last 15 months that
> killed a total of 28 people, including the clipping of an Italian
> gondola cable by a Marine fighter jet in February 1998 that left 20
> people dead.
>
> NIMA officials contend they have an exemplary safety record despite a
> massive workload. Last year, the agency printed 23.5 million copies of
> maps and charts and produced 650,000 compact discs.
>
> Though the Italian gondola accident received the most attention,
> others involving faulty maps have occurred. About two weeks after the
> Marina gondola tragedy, five Navy fliers were killed when their UH-1N
> Huey helicopter collided with power lines.
>
> The electrical wires didn't appear on the map they used even though
> the same power lines killed two other people three years earlier, a
> military investigator said.
>
> The agency has encountered funding shortages, a loss of senior
> analysts and cartographers and friction between intelligence and
> defense communities for its services.
>
> NIMA was created in 1996 by merging the 24-year-old Defense Mapping
> Agency with photographic analysts and intelligence personnel from
> seven other Pentagon and CIA branches.
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