Mfr Nara- T7- Casfo- Dyer Bob- 1-12-04- 00233

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COMMISSION SENSITIVE UNCLASSIFIED

MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD Event: Bob Dyer, CivilAviation 9/1112001

Security Fieid Office (CASFO) supervisor on

Type of Event: Interview Date: January 12,2004 Special Access Issues: None Prepared by: John Raidt Location:

By phone from commission office at GSA

Team: 7 Participants (non-Commission): Participants (Commission):

Bob Dyer and Brandon Straus, TSA Counsel

BiB Johnstone and John Raidt

Background •

[U] Dyer spent 20 years in the Air Force as an expert in aircraft security. After leaving the Air Force he was hired 'in 1991 by the FAA as a Federal Air Marshal and airport inspector in the agency's New England Regional Office, in Burlington, MA. In 1996 he took a CAS staff job (K-9) unit at the regional office there. On 8/21101 he was appointed as a supervisor in the CASFO at Boston which was the job he held on 9/11101. He later became the Federal Security Director at the Portland, Maine, Jetport. On 9-11 [U] Dyer was at the GSA building at Boston for a meeting with fellow CASFO supervisor Pam Whitaker Gray and the chief of the Boston CASFO Mary Carol Turano. The meeting was set for 8:00 a.m. Sometime between 8:00 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. Turano received a page from the FAA Regional Office's Operations Center of a possible hijacking on a flight from Boston. Dyer remembers a number of calls going back and forth in trying to identify the flight. A subsequent call from the Ops Center indicated that a plane had crashed into the WTC.

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[U] Dyer, Turano, and Gray were able to get a police cruiser to take them back to the Boston CASFO. By the time they arrived a Primary Network telcon had been established. He believed] t>fthe CASFO had made the connection into the Primary Net. No.tape recording was made of this Primary Net from the CASFOfR:~gi'{jiial office's end. This was done right after the first aircraft hit the WTC .

The o-perations center was in the "old conference" room at the CASFO . -»

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COMMISSION SENSITIVE UNCLASSIFIED

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~nstructed someone to start a log/book to note times and events at the Operations Center. He said this log was kept on butcher block paper. Dyer believes the paper wa~,~iven'lo,¥.ike Morse at the FAA for the Congressional Joirit Inquiry.

[U] Dyer saidthat everyone.at the CASFO followed the directions from HQ as per the FAA's Crisis Management Manual which contained roles and checklists. He recalled that it took several hours for the aircraft which hit the WTC to be identified, which he attributed to confusion about what airlines -,a~..nd flight numbers were involved. "

[U] Dyer recalls that there we~e'4 or 5 people in··the.CASFO working on various tasks such as getting manifests and identif~ing cargo that ~·as.p'? board. The individuals were Turano; Dyer; Pamela Whitaker Gray;! t anal taking notes. [U] Dyer does not remember whether the CASFO had any contact with the ATC. He did say that while CASFO people were checking out manifests, cargo etc., the FAA PSI's were conducting parallel investigations with the air carriers.

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[U] He recalled that they were trying to figure out where the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania (UA 93) originated. [U] Dyer stated that several months after 9-11, Mike Morse came to collect all the information they had, including magnetometer results from Boston. An of this information was collected into white binders and turned over to Morse. [U] Dyer said that he has no idea why the terrorists chose Portland, Maine and Boston Logan. He said that there was nothing glaringly wrong at Boston that should have encouraged the terrorists to use the airport. [U] Dyer explained the line of authority for civil aviation security in the regional offices was as follows. FAA's New England Regional Office has a Civil Aviation Security Division, headed by a division manager (Rich Stevens). The Civil Aviation Security Field Office, headed by a Manager (Mary Carol Turano) reported to the Division Manger. The Federal Security Manager (FSM) at Boston Logan (Stephen Luongo) reported directly back to FAA HQ. Dyer stated that Luongo was the person in charge of security at Logan.

[U]Logan Airport is under the jurisdiction of the FAA's New England Regional Office, while Dulles and Newark were under the jurisdiction of the FAA's Eastern Regional Office.

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Recommendations

[U] Dyer believes that it's better to have the federal government responsible for implementing federal mandates, than air carriers or their contractors .

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COMMISSION SENSITIVE UNCLASSIFIED

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