Thanks for the link VegasBud -

Yes, that's the right article. Put back in the context of slimpickins situation of erasing a drive to be returned, I have to emphasize that a couple of passes of random data should suffice for any practical considerations of privacy maintenance.

The bit about the US being nervous about destroying HDD's aboard military aircraft is interesting - but why not just chuck 'em overboard with lead weights if you're over water (which would have worked fine with the ELINT aircraft that was forced down in China). Certainly won't work all the time (if you're over land or the water is really shallow), but it certainly seems like the kind of "improvised technique" that would be useful for the Navy at least.

All the best,
Morse