And here in this very thread we have the rumblings of the death of safety when outsiders move in and examine data for legal means in few cases. While on the other hand we have a promotion of actions from within the industry ready to decrease safety by globally wide actions against the use of these recorders.
Please do not misrepresent the intent of my previous comment. As a Safety Manager for the last few years trying to instill a Just Culture in a company that had more than its fair share of cynics I am a passionate advocate of a reporting system that has the confidentiality and integrity necessary to convince them of its benefits. A Just Culture takes years to construct and seconds to destroy.
I was not suggesting, recommending or extolling a
promotion of actions in any way. I did state that I did not believe that pilots would intentionally erase CVRs. I was simply providing my observations from my experience in safety as to how easy it will now be for the safety skeptics to convince themselves that they were right all along. My point was that because of the SOPS and regulations currently in place governing CVRs it won't even require a conscious action on their part to undermine it. That's why this judgment is worrying to me as a Safety Manager.
I believe that the judgment was wrong, but only insofar as the timing was premature. The Judge could have reserved judgment until after the AAIB Report was published. The safety investigation could be completed without interference and the prosecutor would then have an expert opinion on the cause of the crash to inform his decision on criminal activity. He was over-zealous in the timing of the application for access.