SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The FBI (news - web sites) has turned down family requests that it release the cockpit voice recording from an airliner hijacked on Sept. 
 11 that crashed in a Pennsylvania field, saying the horror captured on the tape would do little to assuage their grief. 

 ``(FBI) Director (Robert) Mueller has personally listened to the recording from the hijacked flight and advised that the FBI will not be releasing the tape at this time,'' FBI spokesman John Collingwood said in a letter to U.S. Rep. Ellen Tauscher (news  - bio - voting record) that the congresswoman's office released on Thursday. 

 ``While we empathize with the grieving families, we do not believe that the horror captured on the cockpit voice recording will console them in any way,'' Collingwood 
 said. 

 Tauscher, a California Democrat, had written to the FBI on behalf of Deena Burnett, whose husband Thomas was among those aboard the plane when it was hijacked on Sept. 11. 

 Unlike three other passenger jets hijacked that day that crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (news - web sites), United Flight 93 crashed into a field in 
 Pennsylvania, apparently brought down amid a passenger revolt against the hijackers. 

 Burnett and several other relatives of Flight 93 passengers have asked the government to release the cockpit voice recorder, saying they hoped it would reveal what really happened during the final minutes before the plane crashed, killing all 45 people aboard. 

 The Justice Department (news - web sites) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation declined to release even an edited transcript of Flight 93's cockpit voice recorder, 
 saying that it is evidence in a criminal investigation. 

 The FBI's Collingwood repeated that the tape was being held as evidence, and said Mueller believed that the families would gain nothing from listening to the tape. 

 ``While we share your interest in providing Mrs. Burnett with peace of mind, we do not believe that any of the victim's families would find comfort in the recording,'' Collingwood said. ``Furthermore, the voices are, for the most part, indistinguishable.'' 

 A number of other recordings, made by other aircraft and air traffic control, have surfaced that appear to support the belief that passengers clashed with the hijackers in the final minutes of the flight. 

 Collingwood said that while the FBI would not accede to the families' request for the tape, ``we hope that they will take comfort in knowing that all of America embraces 
 the passengers and flight crew of Flight 93 as heroes.''
 

# Es gibt Leute, die sagen, blackbox-Aufzeichnungen würden generell nicht veröffentlicht . Diese Leute irren - siehe das Hörspiel Ammers, das jetzt den Preis der Kriegsblinden erhielt - mit den Aufzeichnungen vieler "letzter Sekunden" von abstürzenden Piloten.

vgl. auch diese Sammlung

NTSB - Erklärung (wieder mal eine. Warum hat das FBI nicht mit dem prinzipiellen Veröffentlichungsverbot argumentiert, sondern mit dem "Horror", der zu hören gewesen sei, der aber anscheinend nach einem halben Jahr so abgeklungen war, dass die Familien -angeblich- den CVR doch hören durften, siehe Link oben?):

                    "The Cockpit Voice Recorder 
The CVR records the flight crew's voices, as well as other sounds inside the cockpit. The recorder's  "cockpit area microphone" is usually located on the overhead instrument panel between the two pilots. Sounds of interest to an investigator could be engine noise, stall warnings, landing gear extension and retraction, and other clicks and pops. From these sounds, parameters such as engine rpm, system  failures, speed, and the time at which certain events occur can often be determined. Communications with Air Traffic Control, automated radio weather briefings, and conversation between the pilots and ground or cabin crew are also recorded. 

                    A CVR committee usually consisting of members from the NTSB, FAA, operator of the aircraft, manufacturer of the airplane, manufacturer of the engines, and the pilots union, is formed to listen to
the recording. This committee creates a written transcript of the tape to be used during the investigation. FAA air traffic control tapes with their associated time codes are used to help determine the local standard time of one or more events during the accident sequence. These times are applied to the transcript using a computer process which provides a local time for every event on the transcript.
                    More precise timing for critical events can be obtained using a digital spectrum analyzer. This transcript contains all pertinent portions of the recording and can be released to the public at the time of the Safety Board's public hearing. 

                    The CVR recordings are treated differently than the other factual information obtained in an accident investigation. Due to the highly sensitive nature of the verbal communications inside the cockpit, Congress has required that the Safety Board not release any part of a CVR tape recording. Because of this sensitivity, a high degree of security is provided for the CVR tape and its transcript. The content
 and timing of release of the written transcript are strictly regulated: under federal law, transcripts of pertinent portions of cockpit voice recordings are released at a Safety Board public hearing on the  accident or, if no hearing is held, when a majority of the factual reports are made public."

Wie strictly regulated auch immer: es sind auch in US-Quellen US-CVRs aus der Zeit NACH dem 11.9. veröffentlicht:
 http://www.airdisaster.com/cvr/transcripts.shtml
Hingegen werden die von (mindestens) der UA93 zurückgehalten. Nur darum geht es.

Und nicht vergessen:
Der FDR (flight data recorder) könnte seit dem 11.9., ohne Gesetze oder Verwandtengefühle zu verletzen, exakt Auskunft darüber geben, ob es einen Abschuß gab, ob ein Entführer bewußt den Steuerknüppel zum Crash drückte, ob es ein Unfall war aufgrund eines Kampfes im Cockpit o.ä.
Aber auch der wird nicht veröffentlicht.

Wo ist die blackbox nun? So verbrannt, dass sie nicht noch Signale senden könnte, war sie wohl nicht. Es wurden -bis auf die angeblichen Hijacker- bisher auch alle Leichen im Pentagon identifiziert. Also müssen die beiden boxes erst recht vorhanden sein!