Originally Posted by
DuncanF
What makes no sense was that the CB was pulled to cover up some discussion, as that would imply that they were planning to crash and therefore have the CVR reviewed. There was some dumb thinking at the pointy end of this flight, but not to the extent of planning to crash and thinking ahead to deceive the accident investigation.
Nah, the guy was part-owner of the company, and understood the liability involved with the horrible decision-making which got them into the mess they were clearly in at that point of the flight. This is further implied by his obvious reluctance to declare an emergency, regardless of fuel warnings, which provides an important clue into his (perhaps "their") frame of mind re: deception and liability.
He also realized (I'm guessing, based on their prior experience) that punishment for operating commercial aircraft with a couple gallons of fuel remaining by the time they get to the gate is BAD. I believe there were some stories, documents, etc which hinted at this in past ops with them, like when they flew the same route successfully, they'd obviously be bingo fuel.
They could easily (try) to claim some mistake on the part of the ground crew, fuel calculations, etc - but it wouldn't necessarily imply criminal intent. I'm guessing whatever was said in that cockpit in the last 30 min of that flight CLEARLY showed criminal intent, like "well boss, we knew it'd catch up to us some time!" "damn, I knew we were close but I can't believe it's actually happening" or "ok, once we get on the ground, if we need a tug what's our story going to be? Shred that fuel calculation sheet for me" - etc etc etc.
That's very different than just playing dumb.
A crash implies death, though I guess that's not usually how a pilot would think gliding in dead stick - but still, I think if they actually pulled CVR CB, it was because they were more worried they'd land intact after having to declare emergency, priority, etc.. and be met by govt. officials after landing. Especially considering there was already an active arrest warrant out for one of the guys.