Originally Posted by
aterpster
Neither the FAA nor TWA took any action against the crew. There was no requirement to preserve the CVR in 1979. It is unknown whether the crew erased the CVR. It is known that the aircraft was on either APU or ground power so the CVR cycled more than 30 minutes.
I flew the airplane not long after it returned to service. The only wrinkled skin was around the lower, very aft portion of the fuselage. It was a -100 (-31 for TWA).
From reading ‘scapegoat’ a recent book on
this incident( you may find interesting atrp) it seemed to be routine procedure on those days to delete the CVR after each flight
Not surprised the magnificent 727 stayed together that night though, Boeing builds a superb, strong aircraft