Originally Posted by
FlyingStone
Do you erase FDR and QAR data, too? Surely if nothing reportable has happened in your opinion, that data has no value in any kind of future investigations at all, by that logic.
Quite interesting to read how paranoid people are about CVR recordings. Is your airline downloading CVR recordings at every night stop, and chief pilot and management spends their full 8 hours work day just listening to the tapes, day after day?
Erase FDR and QAR data - No. QAR data is monitored routinely. Crew are judged on their actions. Computers are good at filtering the data, and any 'exceedances' can lead to a review and a 'chat' with the crew. FDR data is monitored but only for data integrity purposes, we have to validate that it is recording all the parameters that it should.
CVR's though. The crew need the freedom to be able to talk privately, free from concern that they might be monitored. If they want to slag off management, or talk about leaving for other airlines, then they can do so without fear of retribution, they should not be judged on their opinions. If they don't make it safe to the destination then what was said was said and will be in the investigation. But as long as they made it safely to their destination, then they have the option at the end of the flight to erase that data (and at our firm, we respect that). There is no regular 'download' of CVR data. We have to, in engineering, by law, pull every CVR every 2 years maximum into a workshop and do a detailed monitor that all channels are working properly, clearly. We have procedures to ensure that the listener is on their own, in a soundproof room with headphones, and that person has NOTHING to do with the management chain that leads to the pilots. What they hear, they do not talk about. I'm sure 99.9% of what they hear is exceedingly tedious. I wouldn't want that job.