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Old 23rd Apr 2012, 16:12
  #73 (permalink)  
Airbubba
 
Join Date: Jun 2001
Location: Rockytop, Tennessee, USA
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korrol - the CVR is only used in accident investigation. It doesn't matter if it were over-recorded or not, it wouldn't be available for this incident.
In the U.S., this was pretty much true in the past. However, lately the trend over here has been to harvest conversation on the CVR as part of an 'incident' investigation. I'd almost guess the CVR recording could be used in the U.S. if the argument was made that the CRM problems affected the safe conduct of the flight.

If you have an event that is reportable to the FAA, they and the company safety folks can listen to the CVR recording from what we have been told. If an antiskid controller fails and you blow tires on landing, the whole CVR recording becomes fair game from an incident I've seen.

Many aircraft manuals still have the old boilerplate text that says that only the last 30 minutes are recorded. The new CVR's have solid state memory recording, most retain at least two hours and the 'erase' button mandated decades ago by law sorta works but the recording can be easily recovered from what I've been told by our safety people. I'm sure when the cockpit cameras are installed we will be given every assurance that they will only ever be used for safety, not discipline. And, I'm sure over time things will change.

An example of conversation not directly related to operation of the aircraft being exploited for analysis is in the Colgan 3407 crash in Buffalo. The crew members discussed commuting to work and sleeping in the crew lounge. The posthumous CVR testimony of the Colgan crew was cited in congressional hearings, in my opinion somewhat out of the scope of the original CVR mandate.

There are inevitably a few CVR CRM urban legends that seem to float around. Many seem to involve crews of mixed gender (uh, by that I mean one male, one female). A comment, act or accusation that is inappropriate occurs and someone's job is saved by pulling the CVR circuit breaker to preserve evidence of what actually happened. I know these stories are true because they always start 'Now, this is no s**t!'
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