Originally Posted by
RJtrashPilot
Yes, it was court ordered by the lawsuits following the crash of Comair 5191. It was fought by both ALPA and the company, but ultimately, the records had to be turned over because of the court order.
ASAP agreements are binding among the participants, including the FAA, so they cannot be abused and used for FAA investigations.
But the ASAP system is not codified in federal law so as to be exempt from discovery in lawsuits or as evidence in a criminal case. My guess is that it would never happen...the resistance from various groups (ABA, ACLU, etc) would be epic. There is no general category of information which is currently excluded from access by our judicial system. The closest thing would be defense information which is formally classified (as defined by law)...but even then it can still be accessed, but with a requirement that the courtroom players have security clearances and the information is not released to the public.