Regarding the Cockpit Voice Recorder. I don't think it can be used against the crew or even reviewed if there wasn't an accident.
This is certainly an incident of the higher orders, but it is not an accident without injuries, death or serious property damage.
I disagree. I believe the CVR can be reviewed in the event of a 'reportable incident'.
And, landing on the wrong piece of pavement is a reportable incident, see:
Sec. 830.5 Immediate notification.
The operator of any civil aircraft, or any public aircraft not
operated by the Armed Forces or an intelligence agency of the United
States, or any foreign aircraft shall immediately, and by the most
expeditious means available, notify the nearest National Transportation
Safety Board (NTSB) office \1\ when:
(12) Any event in which an operator, when operating an airplane as
an air carrier at a public-use airport on land:
(i) Lands or departs on a taxiway, incorrect runway, or other area
not designed as a runway;
Federal Register, Volume 75 Issue 4 (Thursday, January 7, 2010)
Also, many airlines have added the CVR circuit breaker to the shutdown checklist in response to NTSB complaints that the data was often overwritten in accidents and incidents where there was no loss of electrical power. You pull it if something happens and get hanged for not following the checklist if you don't. The erase button on the CVR cockpit panel may not even be operative on modern solid state units from what I've heard.
At one time we were told that the CVR was solely for safety, not discipline and would never be used against you. Kinda like FOQA and ASAP right? And in the military 'Failure to volunteer for this assignment will never be held against you.' And, no one is pressured in any way to enter the HIMS program, it is totally voluntary.
Somewhat ominously, the current trend is to harvest from the CVR what would formerly be transcribed as 'non-pertinent conversation'.
The NTSB wants the airlines to listen in on a regular basis:
Watchdog wants to eavesdrop on cockpit chit-chat
February 24, 2010
WASHINGTON (AFP) – US air safety officials want to monitor "black box" voice recorders in a bid to eliminate the kind of cockpit banter blamed for an airliner crash last year in New York that killed 50 people. "It is essential to understand what is going on in the cockpit if we are to achieve further reductions" in the number of accidents involving commercial aircraft, Debbie Hersman, chair of the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said in a statement sent to AFP Wednesday.
"The benefits attained from the cockpit voice recorder should not be limited to posthumous investigations," she said.
The NTSB recommendation that cockpit black boxes be routinely monitored came in the agency's report, released this month, into the crash in which 49 passengers and crew and one person on the ground died when a Continental Airlines commuter plane slammed into a house outside Buffalo, New York.
The black box on that flight showed that the pilot and co-pilot "began a conversation that was unrelated to their flying duties" when the aircraft was below 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) as it approached Buffalo International airport.
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and airline policy rules prohibit non-essential discussions when flying below 10,000 feet.
In another case of pilot distraction, two Northwest Airlines pilots overshot their destination by 100 miles (160 kilometers) because they were chatting and using their laptops, which is also in violation of aviation safety rules.
If the NTSB recommendation is put in place, airlines would themselves monitor cockpit voice recorders from their own aircraft, and they would do so "for safety reasons, not punitive reasons," Ted Lopatkiewicz, director of public affairs for the NTSB, told AFP.
The NTSB is also asking the FAA "to seek legislation, if necessary, to ensure the protection of those recordings from public disclosure," Lopatkiewicz said.
Only cockpit conversations on US airlines would be monitored, he said.