Pilots forced to talk about work in the cockpit

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Hi Nick,

I've never been convinced that the minor sterile cockpit violations caused the Colgan accident. They were silent for the two minutes before the deceleration, as I discussed here:

http://www.gadling.com/2009/05/25/plane-answers-chit-chat-did-not-doom-colgan-flight-3407/

As for the NTSB's recommendation that the FAA monitor our conversations, I'd really hate to have to be the person going through those tapes.

We operate under a "Flight Operations Quality Assurance" or FOQA at our airline. This program records all the parameters of the flight and if any limitations are exceeded or the approach isn't stabilized during the last 1,000 feet, we get a call from a 'gatekeeper' who is the only one that knows our identity. He records the circumstances on the flight and passes it along to someone who tracks the trends at the airline.

There would have to be some rock solid assurances that the voice data wouldn't be released and anonymity could be maintained. Even so, there would still be pilots vehemently opposed to the plan.

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