Important Court Action
On January 29, 2008, a Complaint for Injunctive Relief was filed with the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee located in Memphis, Tennessee against the following defendants:
NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION
SAFETY BOARD
490 L’Enfant Plaza, SW
Washington, DC 20594-0001
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE
950 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20530-0001
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION
1200 New Jersey Ave, SE
Washington, DC 20590.
The Complaint seeks records pertaining to the recovery and custody of the flight data recorder from American Airlines Flight 77 from the NTSB and FBI, and a copy of the original serial bit stream (binary 1’s and 0’s) in waveform format. It further seeks the radar data from Andrews AFB, Dulles and Reagan International Airports in the custody of the FAA, the Sheraton Hotel and other videos which the FBI has in its custody and have delayed the release of.
This is an action by a private citizen under the Freedom of Information Act and will require considerable resources to complete satisfactorily. Donations (DONATE button on sidebar) are critical and greatly appreciated to help with the court costs and expenses involved in discovery and related motions.
Copy of Complaint filed with the Court
June 11, 2008 Update
On June 10, 2008 an attorney for the FBI contacted me by phone to inform me that she was working on the release of various videos in their possession. She stated that she wanted to clarify which videos I was most interested in and would be compiling a list which she would forward to me once approved by her supervisor.
Pinnacle has also recieved an information release from the FAA on June 10, 2008.
February 4, 2008 Update
On January 31, 2008 the NTSB responded to an appeal filed relative to the serial bit stream. The appeal reiterated what is already known from the FOIA process that the NTSB has used the American_77.fdr for its work products (generated by Flightscape, Inc's RAPS software) which was generated by the FDR manufacturer’s software (L3 uses ROSE). The NTSB goes into a long winded explanation of how they do not have the serial bit stream and did not make a file corresponding to it (other than the raw dump).
Although unwittingly, they confirmed that the American_77.fdr file is an extraction of the solid state memory module and that they can provide the waveform. The file requested is the serial bit stream stored in the memory module, but in a non-encrypted format such as a waveform file (which does not require industry software not available to the public to read) and is within the scope of the 1996 Electronic Freedom of Information Amendments.
5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(3)(B)
In making any record available to a person under this paragraph, an agency shall provide the record in any form or format requested by the person if the record is readily reproducible by the agency in that form or format. Each agency shall make reasonable efforts to maintain its records in forms or formats that are reproducible for purposes of this section.
In the appeal response, the NTSB admits that the requested format is feasible, but insists it is not required to provide it in that format. The NTSB suggests that it is possible to produce it from the American_77.fdr file; however the request is for the data stored in the solid state memory module, not the American_77.fdr file.
NTSB Appeal Response
