CommissionSensitive

MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

Event:Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) HeadquartersType of event: Interview with James SlateDate: April 19, 2004Special Access Issues: NonePrepared by:

Geoffrey

BrownTeam Number:

Location: FAA Headquarters Building, Washington, D.C.

Participants

Non-Commission: Brook

Avery,

Chief

Consul

Office,

FAA

Participants - Commission: Team 8: John

Azzarello,

Miles Kara,

Geoffrey

BrownNote: Please

refer

to the

recorded interview

for

further

details.

Background:

Slate joined the FAA in 1983 as an Air

Traffic

Controller (ATC) in Raleigh,North Carolina.Heworkedfor ayearat FAAHeadquarters, returnedtoRaleigh,andthen

1996

returned to Headquarters. In 1998 he was assigned to National Tower as theAssistant Facility Manager.

September

11,

2001

(9/11):

Slate arrived at National Tower shortly

after

10:OOAM.

When he arrived at theTRACON (Terminal Radar Control) his OMIC, Bob Laser,

informed

him of a

fourth

aircraft

en route to Washington, DC.

Post

9/11:

As the Acting Facility Manager, Slate stayed on duty for "the next several

days".

He had a Specialist secure the data

from

the

day's

logs, recordings, and statements, andprovide that information to the Quality Assurance Branch at Eastern Region. The originaldata remainedat the

facility.

Questions

from

the Region prompted Slate to listen to tapes

from

National. PerthedirectionofBill PeacockandDarlene Freeman, Slatewasresponsibleforputting

"some"

briefing papers together for the Administrator to

refer

to in her appearance

before

Congress. Also involved in Darlene Freeman's group, to his recollection, was JamesAerosmith. There were

functional focus

groups under various lines of business forFreeman. Slate workedon Air

Traffic,

and was theleadfor the

briefing

papers.Oneissuepaper

was on

coordination

and

communication,

and

Slate

"believes"

received

the

information

for

this

effort

from

David

Cannoles,

Doug Gould, Tony

Ferrente,

Scott Bing,

and

Jack Keis (at the Herndon Command Center). Slate brought

from

a NORAD entity

Commission Sensitive

Commission

Sensitive

data

from

the FAA side of communication with the military. He did not speak to the

military

to receive these logs. The information was given to him by New England Region

(Bill

Ellis), Great Lakes (Nancy Shelton) and Eastern Region (Air

Traffic

DivisionManagers,

either

Frank Hatfield

Rick

DuCharme).

Slatedoes not recall exactly when he completed this work, but it was certainly

before

the

Administrator's

meeting. Slate believesheworkedtheweekend

after

9/11,

butdoes not recall the timing of his tasking. He believes that part of his

effort

was to look fortimes

for

military notification.Slate's

end

products were "one

or two

page talking point

papers".

The

issues were

military notification, transponders,

the

timing

traffic

management instructions

- he

handed his work to Darlene Freeman. The Director of Air

Traffic,

Bill Peacock, oversaw

all

this work. The "one paper I did on military notifications" was addressed operations

notifications.

He gave the notes to Mary Ellen Kraus (Special Assistant or Chief of

Staff).

Hereceivednofeedbackor

follow-on

questions.As Slate recalls, the point paper on notifications was referred to as "Air

Traffic

Coordination with

Military".

He believes that his paper was one page. He recalls that hewas told to use only the FAA timeline, but decided to contact the military regardingmilitary

information.

He approached this through Col Atkins.Slatedoes recall

some point during this

effort

NORAD published

its own

timeline, but does not know if the FAA was involved in any way. Slate did not

specifically

know about a disagreement with the military, but his job was solely to deal

with

the FAA

side

of a

chronology.

"just heard

on the

macro-scale"

that there

was

contentionover the correct chronology between the military and the FAA.Slateexplained that therewas oneentry pointat the FAA for thedata thatwasused for thechronology,andthenthevarious groups took

from

that data whateverwaspertinent to their own assignments.

The

military liaison could have been informed

by one of the

ATCs

for an

aircraft

interest, and, according to Slate, this could be interpreted that there was a notification

the military. [Note: Commission

staff

is clear that neither the FAA Center positionMOS(Military Operations Supervisor)or theMilitary Liaison positionat FAAHeadquarters (Col. Cheryl Atkins)

fills

theresponsibilityofbeingachannelto the

military

for

hijack

and/or

fighter

escortprotocols.

For

further

information,

please