Mr Pieter van Vollenhoven, head of the Dutch Safety Board, has so far thwarted the strident demands of the Dutch Public Prosecutor for access to, and control of the FDR & CVR. Basing his denial on Dutch law which allows such access only in case of terrorism or criminal acts.
The Public Prosecutor has an unpleasant record for this kind of behaviour*, but mr. van Vollenhoven is known for not giving in to the demands of expediency.
It is really distateful that this turf fight is now fought in public. And actually with both sides going head-to-head, it looks like whoever got the CVR and FDR first, would not have given the data to the other party. This is not going to be good for subsequent incidents, where both of these parties might want to rush to the scene, ignoring everything else, to get to the black boxes first.
And for the record, I'm with the Public Attorney as well. I think the "Openbaar Ministerie" has to have access to the data (but maybe not the actual physical CVR and FDR) to determine whether a criminal investigation should be started or not. Giving them access to the data does not automatically make this a criminal case.
But right now it is Mr. van Vollenhovens Onderzoeksraad who is the only one able to make the determination whether this is a criminal case or not. Something that's completely and utterly outside their jurisdiction and expertise.
On the other hand, what's the rush? The Openbaar Ministerie can also sit on their hands for a month, wait for the analysis of the data and then subpoena the data anyway. It's the investigation and the results of the investigation of the OVV that should not be used in criminal cases, but I cannot believe that that would also go for the raw data on which the OVV investigation is based.
That would actually create a nice loophole in general. If I'm involved in an accident which might somehow lead to a criminal investigation, I would ship everything that might even be remotely used as evidence to the OVV, knowing that it's going to be safe from the OM.
Mr. van Vollenhoven is right in the sense that he wants to protect the independence of the OVV, but I think he's wrong in not giving the OM access to the raw data.