When there is an incident or accident—for example, a pilot deviation—and air traffic control (ATC) is involved, communications between the aircraft and the controllers will be reviewed.
The colloquial phrase for this is “pulling the tapes.” These tapes contain conversations between pilots and ATC and are fast-paced, verbally dense, and often occluded by cockpit noise or VHF distortion. If there has been an event, these tapes have to be reviewed multiple times as they are often an integral part of the investigation.
