911 Tapes destroyed

[Liszt]

"According to the report given to the 9/11 Commission by Department of Transportation Inspector General Kenneth Mead, the audiotape was crushed in the hand of the unnamed FAA employee, then cut into small pieces and tossed into different trash cans around the ARTCC building....


...Inspector General Mead told the 9/11 commission the employee showed "poor judgment," and in calling for administrative action, said the employee's attitude about the destruction was "especially troubling." The FAA confirms disciplinary action has been taken against the employee, but will not say what that action was, or identify the employee. Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) says the matter could be investigated further."

http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/briefs/187259-1.html

(looks like a reliable site)

This is fairly old news (2004), but I've only just seen it. Does anyone have an explaination? Extreme arse covering?

[Dave Rogers]

This is fairly old news (2004), but I've only just seen it. Does anyone have an explaination? Extreme arse covering?

Prior agreement with the unions that records of interviews with employees would not be kept, IIRC. Protection against self-incrimination allowed individuals to be more honest.

Dave

[MikeW]

The manager said that keeping the tape would have violated union rules. I've a page on it at http://www.911myths.com/index.php/FAA_destroyed_tapes

[Liszt]

A full 6 - 7 minutes? You guys are getting slack. (Well done, I mean)

Sounds like a stupid set of union rules though. And he should have burnt it. It would be easy to follow him round the bins (as someone seemed to have done anyway) and pick up the bits.

[jhunter1163]

Nice tags.

[Liszt]

Nice tags.

thanks, but sadly, they are fakes.

I was thinking about this union rules stuff (having been in a few myself) - but this tape was evidence in a mass muder trial. There was no way union rules trumped the law.

I think that they were playing weeaboo instead of looking for terrorists, and wanted to destroy the evidence.

http://pbfcomics.com/archive_b/PBF071-Weeaboo.gif

[Mr.Herbert]

thanks, but sadly, they are fakes.


You have fake t*ts?

[apathoid]

Nice tags.

It's "save the Ta-tas" month after all; we all have different ways of promoting breast cancer awareness. ;)

[Dave Rogers]

I was thinking about this union rules stuff (having been in a few myself) - but this tape was evidence in a mass muder trial. There was no way union rules trumped the law.

That would, presumably, be why the FAA suspended Kevin Delaney without pay for showing poor judgement.

Dave

[Cheap Shot]

I was thinking about this union rules stuff (having been in a few myself) - but this tape was evidence in a mass muder trial. There was no way union rules trumped the law.

I think that they were playing weeaboo instead of looking for terrorists, and wanted to destroy the evidence.

Actually someone thought it might be a good idea to gather information informally of a chronolgical oreder of events from several of the controllers involved. Not a bad idea, they still had to fill out there official statements which were not destroyed. Nor were the official tapes that were recorded on position.

After they made the tape, it was discussed amongst them that maybe what they had talked openly about could be used against them at a later date. It is a pretty well known fact that the FAA and it's Union employee's are not on the best of terms.

They determined the best thing was to destroy it. I think knowing what they know now it could have bee a pretty important piece of history, I wish we would have made one at Boston Center. Three days after 9-11 when I was interviewed, I couldn't put anything in chronological order.

Remember this was nothing but a cassette tape recording, nothing official, they broke no laws.

[Trojan]

The tapes, once made, became evidence in the investigation and should have be subject to a no destruction hold, which would trump any union rules.

They should not have been destroyed. It was piss poor management. Its unfortunate but it does happen.

[BigAl]

The tapes, once made, became evidence in the investigation and should have be subject to a no destruction hold, which would trump any union rules.

They should not have been destroyed. It was piss poor management. Its unfortunate but it does happen.

To the degree that the above may be true, the lack of tapes didn't affect the conclusions of the commission one bit.

[Cheap Shot]

The tapes, once made, became evidence in the investigation and should have be subject to a no destruction hold, which would trump any union rules.
Our only requirement is to provide a statement to the Quaility Assurance Office which they did. Those statements were not destroyed. The tape contained items that would be considered off the record. Some of the statements on the tape, were probably on the QA statements, but my guess is somethings that maybe they though were irrelevant then would have more importance now.

For myself I had two sheets of paper that I scribbled on all day, I wish I had kept them, there was no control information on it, but I would sure like to have those two sheets of paper now. I did attempt to write a chronological statement which I gave to the DOJ three years later, no one ever asked for it until then.

[gumboot]

My understanding is the sole purpose of making those tapes was to make it easier for the staff to later fill out their official reports. Once the reports were completed, the tapes had achieved their purpose and were not needed.