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United States General Accounting Office

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Briefing

OSI was asked to obtain the facts surrounding the preparation of and the information
contained in an executive summary prepared for FAA Administrator Jane Garvey on
September 11,2001.
We interviewed 27 people during the course of our investigation, to include the FAA
Administrator; Deputy Administrator; FAA senior management and personnel; and
American Airlines personnel.
We conducted 11 interviews of various FAA security and intelligence personnel before
identifying the author of the executive summary, a security staff member. The security
and intelligence managers could not identify the person(s) involved in preparing the
executive summary.
FAA Security had 2 crisis management centers in operation on September 11, 2001. The
primary crisis management center (ACC) became operational at approximately 8:55 a,m.
It was staffed with FAA security directors/senior managers and other pertinent staff.
They also setup an auxiliary crisis management center at approximately 11:00 a.m. Both
crisis management centers received and recorded information concerning the hijackings.
FAA's Principal Security Inspector (PSI) contacted American Airlines via telephone for a
status update at 9:20 am. and was advised of a shooting. The PSI received specific
information regarding the names and seat numbers of the passengers involved in the
alleged shooting. The information was recorded and posted in both crisis management
centers without any additional corroboration. Interviews of the PSI, the author and
other security personnel confirmed that this information was recorded and posted in the
crisis management centers and later included in the executive summary.
We uncovered a phone call received by the FAA Washington Operation Center (WOC)
reporting a shooting aboard American Airlines Flight 11. The WOC, a 24-hour operations
center located in a room adjacent to the ACC, received the report of a shooting at 8:44
a.m. on September 11,2001. The WOC never reported this information to FAA security
personnel in the ACC.

Interviews of American Airlines personnel contradict the statements of FAA security

personnel. American Airlines personnel deny ever reporting a shooting on any of the
hijacked flights on September 11,2001. However, a former American Airlines employee
recalled hearing an anecdotal report of a gunshot aboard one of the hijacked flights on
September 11, 2001 at the American Airlines Corporate Security Office in Dallas, TX.
Due to the lack of cooperation from American Airlines, we did not receive any additional
information.
Based on our investigation, there is no information to corroborate a shooting on
American Airlines Flight 11.