I was talking to somebody recently who told me of an ATC tape recording of a fatal crash. Apparently, a lot of pilots hold the PTT button down when they know they are going to die, so ATC get to hear the whole lot, and in this case you could hear his family screaming in the background. The transcript (which I read) revealed nothing of the sort.
Yes they do, and I have listened to more than a few. But it rarely sheds light on why the accident occurs, just confirms the time of impact. The sounds live with you. Also you can get an uncommanded short open transmission at the moment of impact due to disruption of the electronics.
I spent a few years out of private flying. When I stopped the King KNS80 Rnav was the new boy on the block. When I returned something called a GNS430 had become the system of choice. My first thought was that this device needs configuring before you get airborne. There was loads of scope to fiddle in flight, head in cockpit, attention distracted from the primary function of controlling the aircraft. You could also screw settings up big time if the wrong button pushes were made.
A low hour PPL in a high tech machine trying to re-configure the electronics of a high tech device could easily lose the picture.