T8 B2 Faa Ny Center (boston Center) Barry O'connor Fdr- 9-22-03 Draft Mfr 736

[Classification] MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD Event: Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Boston Center Field Site Interview 1 with Barry O'Connor, Regional Operations Officer for Communications Information Security (COMSAT), FAA Regional Operations Center (ROC) Type of event: Interview Date: Monday, September 22, 2003 Special Access Issues: None Prepared by: Geoffrey Brown Team Number: 8 Location: FAA Boston Center, Nashua, New Hampshire Participants - Non-Commission: John R. Donnelly, FAA Senior Attorney [(781) 238 7045] Participants - Commission: John Azzarello, Miles Kara, Geoffrey Brown NOTE: Unless otherwise noted, the following paraphrases the response and opinion of the interviewee. Please refer to the interview transcript for a complete account.

O'Connor has been with the FAA since 1973, and has been with the Regional Operations Center since 1987. He noted that the role of the Communications Information Security division is to act as a conduit for information amongst the various ROC contains entities such as flight standards (in spectators), air traffic, security, airways facilities, legal, human resources and civil rights. Within COMSAT for ROC are six operations officers and one manager. They work twelve hour shifts, with one or two people on per shift. COMSAT is similar to a dispatching service for the nine offices internally at the ROC, but the differ in that they gather information that is at times passed through local state agencies. COMSAT then notifies the proper entities. They would notify the WOC (Washington Operations Center) dependent on the severity of the situation (a fatality), or whether the incident was newsworthy. The entities they might contact include, but is not limited to: state and local police, state aviation, air traffic control towers, Federal Bureau of Investigations, or Coast Guard. O'Connor noted that the Northeast Region Operations Control Manual does cover hijacking protocol. On 9/11 O'Connor received a call from Terry Biggio of Boston Center informing him the

possible hijacking of American Airlines 11 (AAl 1). Biggio told O'Connor Boston Center was "working the aircraft", but had overheard threats. COMSAT arranged for the ROC coordinated with the WOC and put Biggio on a conference line. WOC then contacted their security and ROC started notifying all internal teams. The Regional Management Team was in a staff meeting, but were shortly notified by their own channels. ROC notified air traffic division 505, and Tom Benson of quality assurance and placed them in the conference call amongst numerous government entities. O'Connor handled the requests of various FAA divisions to be placed in calls on 9/11, and these calls began prior to the AAl 1 hitting of the WTC. He does not remember if Herndon was connected to these calls, and does not handle connecting FAA entities to the military. He noted that he has experienced similar "hectic" scenarios like 9/11, but that he has never seen a hijacking in his career. There have been routine exercises with airports in tune with the type of emergencies they might experience, and he remembers a coworker, identified as Sherry Dottin, who partook in a hijacking drill four to five years ago. He noted that to help prepare his office for these types of emergencies the handbook is updated periodically, and identified this handbook as FAA NE Regional Order 1770.1. COMSAT only keeps a chronological log of their day's activites during major events. He constructed a timeline for 9/11, and was on duty until 9pm. O'Connor noted that since 9/11 he feels callers to COMSAT should know the exact party they wish to speak to, and that COMSAT should be aware of the correct POCs for various FAA entities. He had no involvement in Cleveland Center on ZNY. He only handled calls that involved AAl 1, but overheard conversation about UAL 175 when FAA raised Security Conference levels and he had to notify the various northeast region offices. He also had to notify the offices when FAA declared a national air traffic control ground stop. O'Connor noted that on 9/11 WOC and ZBW were connected real time, but that such simultaneous connection is rare, and information would usually flow from ZBW to the ROC, then to WOC. O'Connor noted that the COMSAT FAA Primary NET on 9/11 was open to all agencies, and the Tactical NET was FAA only. O'Connor also noted the ROC has an active duty military liaison, who is to be informed on military accidents. The liaison is not 24 hour. O'Connor stated there is now an Air Traffic Crisis Center at the ROC, and that this center receives active information for the strict purpose of handling air traffic. This center deals internally with FAA air traffic matters. COMSAT does practice relocation twice per year, and did so prior to 9/11. Their back up facility is at ZBW.