The degree of electron-tunneling interaction between an excited Al atom in the 4s(2)S (1/2) state and an Al surface was investigated by optical spectroscopy. Excited Al atoms near an Al surface suffer, to some extent, from being ionized due to resonance ionization. In conjunction to the phenomena, mean velocities of excited Al atoms in the 4s(2) S-1/2 state sputtered from an Al surface by Ar+ bombardment were measured by observing line-intensity decay of the resonance line (396.152 nm, 4s(2)S(1/2) --> 3p(2)Pdegrees(3/2)) as a function of distance from the target surface in projectile energy ranging 30 to 75 keV. The result was analyzed by Thompson-Sigmund energy distribution multiplied by the survival-probability function. We obtained 4.0 x 10(4) m/s for the survival coefficient of the 4s(2)S (1/2) state of Al atom at 1.2 x 10(-7) Torr of oxygen pressure.