• MEMORANDUM

Event: Unsolicited phone call froml...

Type of event: Unrecorded Telephone Interview
FOR THE RECORD

1 former controller Boston Center

Date: Wednesday, October 22, 2003

Special Access Issues: None

Prepared by: Miles Kara

....
Team Number: 8
ilJ"
Location: Commission Office, GSA

Participants - Non-Commission: None

Participants - Commission: John Azzarello, Miles Kafa

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Background

.I ~~lled the Commissio~ Front Office today, October 22, 2003 and
. explained to Karen Heitkotter that he had information concerning the control of military
. aircraft on 9-11. Karen cal1ed Miles Kara and passed along the unsolicited phone call.
John Azzarello was in., the GSA office sp~ce and he and Miles jointly called) I
This memorandum is th.e record of that conversation.

He was not on
~"'u-ty-on.....r
...
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"'kn"';;'ow"'."e""':dr-g-e-o~ev-e-n~ts~th-a~t
'"':"da!-~
y-:-is-s-e-co-n-d~h:-~"'i":n~d,
he had ../
considerable knowledge of how the Center operated. the personaliti~,s involved/and the
relationship with the military. By hi-s..,0wnwordsl lis a "C6Dfi. on:d
I_-_-_ ......
- ..
_--- .....
i

whistleblower, as he is doing today, and proud ofit." ...

I L>\. .i //
I Flied specifically be~a.u~~qf~~~eported lapse rryObili~~iigtheAir~orce I? on
that day and because of the publicity attendant.to the Commission's.subpoena action
against FAA. He concluded the interview by stating that he "washappyto get out"
because of the FAA penchantforhiding records. '''Mehad t;ol¢ h~l wifethat [FAA]
"answers to nobody, makes its ownrules, and initsown mindt'safety is never
compromised." "", .. i./ .'"""."

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9/11 Personal Privacy

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"'---"'ISM~jor Point/FOR OFFICIAL USE ON!-
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Other Points Dis"~uss~'d

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Otis Training: ./bti~"'Air Force/base fighter aircraft exercise regularly, at 0900 and 1300
hours, local, IT).Qstdays. Typically, the aircraft lift off the Cape on a southerly heading,
about 190 degrees/and ~ain in Warning Area 105. Cape TRACON hands the fighters off

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to Boston Center/Cape/Sector, R 18, at 10K feet. Cape Sector, in turns hands the fighters
off to Giant KiUer, possiblyat Atlantic City. Boston Center does not control the aircraft
,i:n the :farnidg area.
while th Y are.... ...
7
r---t'~idtl:i~tAre~l D ha.d hot lines to HUNTRESS (90 line) and to Giant Killer. There
~isto~y of je~s spilling out of WI 05 into the international traffic lanes and the
Sector would "hit ...
the line" and "virtually yell" to get the fighters back in to the warning
area. Herecalledone serious incident in either WI05 or WI07 off of Atlantic "~ity "a
couple jf
years/~go" that got into the press. . .."

1I'~ecalle~'/~hat there was once a procedure i~ place for .supersonic fl.ight for P'\106
iliciift, but ?,e does j'ot
recall the F ISs ever training or flying supersonic.
w \.

!lijac~ing~fr---teca.lIed one spec~fic incident seve~al ~ears ago, p~rhaps 10

Involving~' ~sa fli ht that was mterce ted b OtIs aIr defense aIrcraft.
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I tknew that the only armed defense aircraft in the New England area capable of
responding on 9-11 were at Otis. At one time there might have been a capability at
Burlington, VT and does not recall there being such a capability at Atlantic City. Further

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south, He thought that Langley had fighters that may have also been armed .

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Staff aSk~' what positio~1 lli~ld and what his role would have been
on 9- I 1. as the military halson officer, 'tr~ry coordinator, but was not
• on the floor t at morning, he was up in his office. 1I1L-.Js opinion he had no reason to

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get in~~I~~d.r-i~~~ll~dtfiild later told a classroom full of people

(controllers an~rvisors) that [FAA] notified Otis in time. The purpose of that
meeting was to go over AFIO (Authorization for Intercept Order) procedures. He
characterized the meeting as "lots of arguments," and "not much learned."

New York Center ODAPS (Ocean Area Control)

'I Is primarycomplaint about New York Center ODAPS is that it had a long history
of only wanting to take commercial aircraft. He specifically recalled the mobilization for
the Gulf War and working 35-40 aircraft in the Nantucket area, and having great
difficulty getting ODAPS to either be aware of the need for military clearance or the
necessity to help. He said ODAPS had a reputation of being "difficult to work with."
They track differently, they have a whole set of rules, it is a non-radar environment.
They do ocean control using AIRINC and HF radio. They do have a radar capability in
the Bermuda area; the feed is remoted to New York. Their only over ocean capability in
the New England area is the Riverhead, New York radar which only goof for 200 or so
nautical miles.

Addendum

'I ~alled back later in the day and stated that the Lufthansa hijacking was in 1993 and

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that the hijacker threat was to crash the plane into Wall Street.

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