[IP] Fwd: NYTimes.com Article: F.A.A. Official Scrapped Tape of 9/11 Controllers' Statements
F.A.A. Official Scrapped Tape of 9/11 Controllers' Statements
May 6, 2004
By MATTHEW L. WALD
WASHINGTON, May 6 - At least six air traffic controllers
who dealt with two of the hijacked airliners on Sept. 11,
2001, made a tape recording that day describing the events,
but the tape was destroyed by a supervisor without anyone
making a transcript or even listening to it, the
Transportation Department said today.
The taping began before noon on Sept. 11 at the New York
Air Route Traffic Control Center, in Ronkonkoma, on Long
Island, but it was later destroyed by an F.A.A.
quality-assurance manager, who crushed the cassette in his
hand, cut the tape into little pieces and dropped them in
different trash cans around the building, according to a
report made public today by the inspector general of the
Transportation Department.
The inspector general had been asked by Senator John
McCain, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, to look
into how well the Federal Aviation Administration had
cooperated with the 9/11 Commission.
The quality-assurance manager told investigators that he
had destroyed the tape because he thought making it was
contrary to F.A.A. policy, which calls for written
statements, and because he felt that the controllers "were
not in the correct frame of mind to have properly consented
to the taping" because of the stress of the day.
Another official, the center's manager, asked the
controllers to make the tape because "he wanted a
contemporaneous recordation of controller accounts to be
immediately available for law enforcement," according to
the report, and was concerned that the controllers would
take a leave of absence immediately, which is standard
procedure after a crash.
On the tape, the controllers, some of whom had spoken by
radio to people on the planes and some who had tracked the
aircraft on radar, gave statements of 5 to 10 minutes each,
according to the report.
The center manager had agreed with the president of the
local union chapter that the tapes would be destroyed once
the standard written statements were obtained, the report
said.
Neither the center manager nor the quality-assurance
manager disclosed the tape's existence to their superiors
at the F.A.A. region that covers New York, or to the
agency's Washington headquarters, according to the report.
None of the officials or controllers were identified in
the report.
Other tapes were preserved, including conversations on the
radio frequencies used by the planes that day, and the
radar tapes. In addition, the controllers later made
written statements to the F.A.A., per standard procedure,
and in this case, to the F.B.I. as well.
But when one of the controllers asked if she could review
her portion of the audiotape to refresh her memory before
giving her witness statement, she was told she could not,
according to the report.
The quality-assurance manager destroyed the tape despite an
e-mail message sent by the F.A.A. instructing officials to
safeguard all records and adding, "If a question arises
whether or not you should retain data, RETAIN IT."
The inspector general ascribed the destruction to "poor
judgment."
"The destruction of evidence in the government's
possession, in this case an audiotape particularly during
times of a national crisis, has the effect of fostering an
appearance that information is being withheld from the
public," the inspector general's report said. "We do not
ascribe motivations to the mangers in this case of
attempting to cover up, and we have no indication that
there was anything on the tape that would lead anyone to
conclude that they had something to hide or that the
controllers did not carry out their duties."
But keeping the tape's existence a secret, and then
destroying it did not "serve the interests of the F.A.A.,
the department, or the public," the report said.
The report also noted that the official who destroyed the
tape had no regrets or second thoughts: "The
quality-assurance manager told us that if presented with
similar circumstances, he would again take the same course
of action."
The inspector general wrote that this attitude was
"especially troubling" and that supervisors should take
"appropriate administrative action."
Although the matter had been referred to the Justice
Department, the report added, prosecutors said they had
found no basis for criminal charges.
An F.A.A. spokesman, Greg Martin, said that his agency had
cooperated with the 9/11 commission and that that was how
the tape's existence had become known at the agency's
headquarters.
"We believe it would not have added in any way to the
information contained in all of the other materials that
have already been provided to the investigators and the
members of the 9/11 commission," he said.
Nonetheless, Mr. Martin said that "we have taken
appropriate disciplinary action against the employees
involved." For privacy reasons, he said, he could not say
what those actions were or identify the employees.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/06/national/06CND-TAPE.html?ex=1084868200&ei=1&en=58b7913934987a31
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