As someone who spent a lot of time in recording studios during the analog age, I’m trying to figure out how a magnetic recording tape “shatters”.
“Is it live or is it Memorex?”
“Shatters”
Yeah, that’s a challenge. I’ve been around tapes that powdered, though. When 3M’s 400 videotape had been around for a couple of years, those of us using it discovered trying to play back older shows resulted in a white powder clogging the video heads. It had something to do with the glue that held the oxide on the tape. At CBS, the tech crew created a jig that had a group of cloth rollers on it. You threaded the tape through it, then turned the roller slowly by hand as the tape dragged against the cloth. We ended up spending most of one summer dubbing two years worth of show masters to save them. The “baking” solution was discovered some time later.
I was looking to see if someone posted exactly what you posted. The story makes no sense. Even if one of the reels was seated incorrectly on the deck, and even if the wrong button was FF or RW, which is the only likely possibility, and even if for some reason one of the reels jammed somehow and the other went flying somehow, there would be a pretty easy fix on any product - one repair if that.
Remember how we used to do loops, after all, with your buddy down the hall, a pencil and the “mobius” reel?
LOL I still have my Otaris.