The CASB's investigation unearthed early on that the microphone located in the cockpit which is used to record conversations between the pilot, co-pilot or flight engineer was turned off. This is an extremely rare occurrence. It is standard procedure to turn on this microphone at all times. What this mean't was that since both the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder provided no helpful evidence because of damage or malfunction, very vital information was unavailable. Only these valuable recordings could have provided the all important reactions of the flight crew to an explosion or pre-impact fire. The only voice recordings that were proven discernable were the conversations between the aircraft and the airport control tower prior to takeoff which provided no information of value. The January 10, 1986 edition of the Globe and Mail in an interview with chief investigator Peter Boag says the following: "That means accident investigators have none of the conversation between the pilot and co-pilot from the time the plane started its takeoff roll until the crash". (see Exhibit 37)

If we return to section 9 of this document, we can recall the words of Christiane Heaulieu, the CASB's spokesman who said on December 13, 1985: "Both tapes are readable..." (see Exhibit 15) The tapes had been flown the day before to Ottawa by a Transport Canada aircraft and delivered to the NRC Playback Centre at 20:50 hours on December 12. (see Exhibit 18) Whatever Beaulieu was basing that statement on, it raises serious questions as to why one month later they were suddenly not readable and useless to the investigation.