I remember reading about the inquiry into the UK RAF Nimrod aircraft that came down in Afghanistan in 2006 killing its crew of 14 [0]. A significant finding was that recovering the design history and maintenance records involved trawling a massive number of filing cabinets / cardboard boxes scattered in sites across the UK, and was a significant cause of the missed opportunities to uncover the design flaws and near misses that preceded the crash. (long story short: internal fuel leak near a very hot exhaust pipe)

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_Royal_Air_Force_Nimrod_cr...