Dozy remarked:
Personally I think it's the wrong term to use, due to the aforementioned negative connotations.
I disagree. The term is entirely accurate, no matter the intent. IMO, any removal of
any information is to diminish our understanding of the conduct of the flight. I am normally quite sympathetic to the valuing of privacy, but in the case of transporting large numbers of people, I'm afraid that privacy isn't at all appropriate. The World has an abiding interest that ought to trump everything else. (I doubt I'll get much agreement on this from a buncha pilots!)
In the case of a private entity passing judgment on the causes of a horrible crash, I believe that some members of the public feel the need to draw their own conclusions from all of the information available. There will always be some people with some sort of "prurient interest," but I think we need to set that aside in the interest of total transparency.
And...this "prurient interest," which is seldom discussed in depth, is natural, AFAIC, on the basis of: there's a natural curiosity about what it's like to prepare to die in a plane crash. Sorry to rip the lid off a jar of spiders.
