September 21, 2001: Recordings of NEADS on 9/11 Damaged during Transcription Attempt

An unsuccessful attempt is made to transcribe tape recordings of communications at NORAD’s Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) on 9/11, and at least one tape is damaged during this process. [North American Aerospace Defense Command, 9/21/2001; 9/11 Commission, 10/30/2003 ; 9/11 Commission, 1/23/2004 ] On September 11, NEADS was responsible for coordinating the US military’s response to the hijackings. In the corner of its operations floor, four Dictaphone multi-channel tape recorders were recording every radio channel. [Vanity Fair, 8/1/2006; Shenon, 2008, pp. 203-204] These tape recorders are run by General Dynamics, which provides an on-site representative at NEADS who is responsible for the recordings. [9/11 Commission, 10/28/2003 ] Conversations at all of the air traffic monitoring stations on the NEADS operations floor were taped on September 11. [9/11 Commission, 10/28/2003 ; Kean and Hamilton, 2006, pp. 86; Shenon, 2008, pp. 203-204]
Tape Damaged - On September 21, NEADS makes an unsuccessful attempt at transcribing these recordings internally. Sergeant James Tollack from McGuire Air Force Base in New Jersey tries to make the transcripts. [North American Aerospace Defense Command, 9/21/2001; 9/11 Commission, 10/30/2003 ] While doing this, he damages at least one of the tapes. As General Dynamics’ technical representative to NEADS, Richard Crane, will tell the 9/11 Commission, it is “his understanding that the McGuire officer who was responsible for transcribing the tapes made a mistake in the process and thus damaged one of the DAT [digital audio tape] tapes.” [9/11 Commission, 10/28/2003 ] According to a note at the top of the transcript of the first few minutes of that tape, “Due to an equipment malfunction, the rest of the information recorded on DRM 2 DAT 2 was lost.” The note adds that while Tollack had the tape in the data recorder for playback purposes, a “computer equipment failure occurred.” [North American Aerospace Defense Command, 9/21/2001]
Recordings Not Backed Up - Crane will say he believes that, given the importance of 9/11, the NEADS tapes should have been copied immediately, but were not. Although General Dynamics lacks the capability to do this, Dictaphone could have made backups. And at some point after 9/11, it is discovered that Dictaphone can transfer a DAT tape to DVD for just $150. [9/11 Commission, 10/28/2003 ]
9/11 Commission Refers to Damaged Tape - The 9/11 Commission will apparently refer to the damaged tape in the endnotes of its final report, where it states, “Because of a technical issue, there are no NEADS recordings available of the NEADS senior weapons director and weapons director technician position responsible for controlling the Otis [Air National Guard Base] scramble.” [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 459] The Commission in fact only learns of the existence of the recordings of the NEADS operations floor in late October 2003 (see Late October 2003), and subsequently subpoenas NORAD for the tapes (see November 6, 2003). According to journalist and author Philip Shenon, by the time the Commission receives the tapes, around December 2003, NORAD has still “not prepared transcripts itself” of the tapes’ contents. [Kean and Hamilton, 2006, pp. 86-88; Shenon, 2008, pp. 203-208]