FAA Destroyed Sept. 11 Air-Traffic-Control Tapes

Fox News ^ | May 7, 2004

[Middle Man]

WASHINGTON — Air traffic controllers who handled two of the hijacked flights on Sept. 11, 2001, recorded their experiences shortly after the planes crashed into the World Trade Center but a supervisor destroyed the tape, government investigators said Thursday.

A report by Transportation Department Inspector General Kenneth Mead said the manager for the New York-area air traffic control center asked the controllers to make the recordings a few hours after the crashes in belief they would be important for law enforcement.

[samadams2000]

This could be the biggest October surprise out of the Demons.

Clarke illuded to a group meeting in preparation of shooting down planes..if need be. I believe we may have and its top secret until the war is over.

My belief is Clarke or someone will leak and the human cry from the media will suffocate Bush..

Thats my BIG..conspiracy play of the year.

[snopercod]

The contollers at the NY ARTCC were in shock - probably crying - and maybe it's a good thing that the ambulance-chasing media isn't making a circus over what was said on that fateful day.

I can just imagine that after the media got done splashing out of context, yet emotional sound bites all over the airwaves, the lawyers would step in and sue everybody for everything that was said.

Sometimes, it's better that tapes like these just go away.

Maybe boots disagrees with me on this.

[eno_]

You can't?

How many acts of sabotage in WWII were not revealed for decades?

How many ops remain secret today?

Military personnel are good at keeping secrets, and air traffic controllers have clearances and are subject to prosecution for leaking.

[eno_]

No, I doubt that's the kind of thing that you could conceal just by destroying the tapes. If the flight controllers had reason to believe Flight 93 was shot down, they would've already said as much a long time ago. Air traffic controllers see a lot they should not talk about, and, generally, they don't.

[AntiGuv]

Heh. I think just about everyone is plotting an October Surprise this year: the DNC, the RNC, the White House, the Kerry campaign, Ralph Nader, the media networks, the Pentagon, George Soros/Warren Buffett, Al Qaeda, the French.. As intense as this election is and as much airplay as the idea has got, this might be the most eventful October since the birth of the Republic...

[AntiGuv]

Yes, but even what they don't talk about generally gets whispered about, especially when it involves something of such magnitude..

[Middle Man]

"Sometimes, it's better that tapes like these just go away."

I don't think it's better that a low-level unelected civil servant makes a call like this when the outcome affects every one of us, and will for years to come, if estimates that the "war on terror" will likely drag on for another 20 years are true.

[brownsfan]

Military personnel are good at keeping secrets, and air traffic controllers have clearances and are subject to prosecution for leaking.

I'm not a big fan of conspiricies, BUT, if I were one of those ATCs, and I knew how big this was, I might think twice, or maybe 100 times, before saying anything. People can, and do have accidents.

[Mr. Bird]

The fact that the guy had promised the union he would destroy it leads me to believe that the concern was over matters of individual performance or neglect. I just can't figure out how a controller's neglect could have affected 9/11. Anyone have an idea? Was the ATC to blame for allowing (by not sounding the alarm fast enough) the two WTC planes so close to NY? I don't know. But I don't think this has anything to do with any shoot-down.

[Freedom of Speech Wins]

It is a huge problem that the audio tapes of Flight 93 have been censored. These should be released. The families of the victims have the pain and the suffering which is real and won't change. However the public has the right to know what happened here.

The country should be able to witness the courage of these crewmembers who fought off the Arab hijackers.

Instead the tapes are censored and the public is left wondering what happened, with less of a clue than they would otherwise have.

The censorship of these audio tapes as well as the Vincent Foster photos is our government acting at its worst, with the worst of effects.

[Middle Man]

"Was the ATC to blame for allowing (by not sounding the alarm fast enough) the two WTC planes so close to NY? I don't know. But I don't think this has anything to do with any shoot-down."

For comparison, we now know that the charter jet golfer Payne Stewart and his entourage died on was intercepted within 15 minutes of the controllers losing radio contact with the cockpit.

Supposedly NORAD has protocols for immediately scrambling when a commercial plane departs from its flight plan or loses radio contact with the tower. Yet these loaded airliners were off-course and unaccounted for for 45 minutes over the most densely populated airspace in the country.

It doesn't sound like "shoot-down" but "stand-down".

[eno_]

That is mighty odd.

[jedi]

The conspiracy theorists will say it's because the Pennsylvania flight was shot down by the Air Force after the passengers had already succeeded in regaining control of the aircraft.

And your explanation of the light debris 8 miles from the crash site, and the 1-ton piece of debris 1 mile from the site?

[bootless]

Naw, I don't disagree. As I said, I don't know that much about ATC other than what I hear from PR and Scooter. You've been there, and I trust your judgment on the details.

:-)

[WhiteGuy]

No cover-up here!

Nothing to see...................

Move along.............

[LasVegasMac]

Well.....I did a search on FAA that brought up both of yesterdays articles.

I really just figured that you would be interested the other posts - one had 45 replies.

No tin foil hat here, just seems strange that the stupervisor would be so quick to "follow procedures", given the gravity of the event.

LVM

[satchmodog9]

hmmmm

[diogenes ghost]

Flight 93 was nowhere near these controllers airspace when it went down, not even in same facilities airspace.

[diogenes ghost]

The 'protocols' you refer to were not in place prior to 9/11.

[eno_]

That is incorrect.

Planes were being hijacked since the 1970s. And the government was planning with full knowledge of Project Bojinka. So either our government was grossly negligent, or plans to shoot down passenger planes were in place.