CVR in court - interesting dilemma
From AP(10/10):
"A federal courtroom should be closed to protect victims' privacy if prosecutors are allowed to play cockpit recordings at the trial of accused Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui, a pilots union says.
The Air Line Pilots Association told a judge Wednesday that public release of cockpit tapes and transcripts would violate a federal law designed to protect privacy in airline disasters. Moussaoui's twice-postponed trial is scheduled for June 30.
Prosecutors have asked U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema for permission to play recordings from United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed near Shanksville, Pa., on Sept. 11, 2001, and a private jet that picked up the cockpit radio transmissions. Passengers on the United jetliner are credited with attacking the hijackers and preventing an attack on the U.S. Capitol or the White House.
Brinkema said in September she probably would reject the government's plan to play the recordings unless prosecutors could demonstrate they represented essential evidence.
The government has not asked that the trial be closed to the public while any tapes are played, but noted that federal law would prevent releasing the recordings outside the courtroom.
The pilots union went further by asking for the closed proceeding.
Any public release "would be contrary to the statutory protections ... instituted at ALPA's behest -- protections that were instituted to protect legitimate and sensitive privacy interests of pilots and the victims of aviation disasters and their families," the written pleading said.
The recorder from United Flight 93 was the only one recovered from the Sept. 11 attacks. The government has allowed relatives of the 40 passengers and crew who died to listen to the tapes in private sessions approved by FBI Director Robert Mueller.
Normally tapes from the cockpit recorder, which record the final 30 minutes before a crash, are not played in public, although transcripts are usually released by investigators."