taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor) (06/09/90)
CNN had an interesting report last night about a possible new law by the Airline Pilot's Association (APA) being pushed in the US Congress; seems that the pilots want to make the cockpit recording units non-public information. Evidentally, the current law requires that a transcript of the recording be made public within 60 days of an accident involving one or more airplanes. The pilots, however, point out that the main value of these transcripts (and the copied audio tapes themselves) are sensational; for the press to jump to their own conclusions about the cause of the accident (rather than let the National Air Safety Board figure it out) and generally to exploit the situation for sales. The pilots further say that if the recordings are indeed going to continue as public media, then there might even be pilots who break the law and unhook the machine before they take off. (it is a further wrinkle in the law that the recording units *must* be on and recording the entire time the plane is in the air). It seems like this is an interesting example of the value of technology (the recording device) versus the impact it has on our society at large (the crew and the public). The question is, looked at from this perspective, do you feel that the pilots are correct in their claims? That is, is it appropriate for the media and public to be barred from important and, indeed, often crucial information because of the (already realized) potential for it to be exploited? As an aside, there was a terrific article in the last issue of the "Columbia Journalism Review" about the problems of reporting air crashes, including a survey of reports that incorrectly guessed at the reasons for various air accidents based on their listening to the in-cockpit recordings and having too little understanding of airplanes, pilots, and their jargon. Dave Taylor