WileyDog3:
It is certainly possible, although a TWA pilot told me that the specific procedure was unknown to TWA 727 pilots, and it was research at Boeing Aircraft which produced that procedure. A large corporation has, compared to a pilot, unrestricted resources with which to defend its reputation and even more money at stake: all of this creates a huge incentive to produce or fabricate a possible theory. Hoot and his crew also counter-sued the NTSB (!), from what I remember.
If the NTSB was ever totally objective about all investigations, that is news to me. Of course they are "provided" data from the aircraft builder, among the many other sources. But they seem to always do a far better job than the USAF investigation of the "King 56" case: C-130 4-engine rollback, due to syncrophaser glitches. An article on some website about the unnecessary crash stated that Air Force investigators must attend a 3-day school, then they are accident experts, and their conclusions can be final.
The article in Aviation Week stated that the same exact B-727 ship (aircraft) number had suffered from uncommanded slat (a Douglas term
)/leading edge flap problems before the major incident happened.