SLFinAZ;
To help you comprehend the issue more subtlely,
this link to the Canadian TSB article below may help. The matter is not one of not accepting the necessity of maintaining a high standard of professionalism and competency as you are implying in your comments. Such protection of flight data is not a "get out of jail card"; such a view entirely misses the point of having such data available in the first place. I suggest you read this carefully. I think this contribution by the TSB provides a good understanding of the issue. The title of the article is shown below.
This article was published in The Journal of Parliamentary and Political Law, Volume 2 Number 3, in May 2009
No Fault, No Blame: Protecting Evidence in Transportation Accident Investigations
May 2009
by Wendy A. Tadros – Chair, Transportation Safety Board of Canada
and Allen C. Harding – General Counsel, Transportation Safety Board of Canada
JW411;
Flight safety is flight safety and we should all be allowed to see each other's viewpoint in the event of an accident.
There is more at play in this matter than merely "each other's viewpoint". I think most of us are in the same category as you place yourself...that our conversations could be openly played without result.
However, the matter of making data available to non-aviation/non-safety groups goes to the heart of the use of CVR, DFDR, FOQA and Air Safety Reports. What if a group of passengers complained about "turbulence" or a hard landing and felt that the pilots put their lives "in danger"? What if, through precedents such as the present one, they then demanded the data and got it for use in court to prosecute a lawsuit claiming 'damages' of some sort? Do you hand over safety data for such requests that come from those who are in no position to judge but by dint of "public interest" suddenly have that authority? Do you remain comfortable with the knowledge that those who know nothing about aviation but a lot about tort law will be judging you on the basis of the CVR?
This is NOT about "hiding information" nor is it about "witch hunts" - the process is much more intelligent, subtle and professional than such characterizations lead one to believe. The process works, and has for decades, as the record attests. Flight safety is indeed, flight safety and the information garnered by those who do the investigations and write the reports needs to be widely shared but an indiscriminate sharing of all data would lead to more harm than the good that is intended.
PJ2