By Michael J. Sniffen The Associated Press
ALEXANDRIA, Va. – The cockpit recorder tape from the Sept. 11 jetliner that crashed in Pennsylvania will be played in public for the first time – to the Zacarias Moussaoui sentencing jury – the judge in the case ruled yesterday.
U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema said the jury considering whether to execute Moussaoui could hear the recording from United Airlines Flight 93 and see a transcript of it.
This cockpit tape has been played privately for the families of Flight 93 victims, but it has never been played in public.
Prosecutors asked the judge to order the tape sealed and to keep the transcript from the general public after it is played in open court, but she made no immediate ruling on that.
Noting that the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered trial evidence made public, she said relatives of Flight 93 victims would have until next Tuesday to advise her whether they object to general release of the material.
She said if no family members object, she will release the material to the general public the day after it is submitted into evidence. No date was set for that.
The sentencing trial of the 37-year-old Frenchman will resume this morning after the jury in the first phase unanimously found him eligible for the death penalty on counts of conspiracy to commit international terrorism, to commit air piracy and to use weapons of mass destruction. This second phase will examine aggravating and mitigating evidence about his crimes, and the jury will decide whether he will be executed or imprisoned for life for his role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
In an order describing yesterday’s closed hearing, Brinkema said the government’s reason for wanting to keep the tape and transcript sealed from general release was “to protect the National Traffic Safety Board against premature public speculation regarding the cause of any airline crash so it may conduct a full and fair investigation.” Brinkema said even prosecutors admitted in court that that reason “is not implicated in this sentencing proceeding.”
Much of what happened aboard Flight 93, including an effort by passengers to retake the plane from al-Qaida hijackers, is known because of the use of cell phones in flight by passengers and flight attendants. Earlier in the trial, prosecutor David Raskin transfixed the jury by reading an account of the last moments of the flight based on the cell phone calls by two flight attendants from the plane to ground controllers.
The transcripts of the flight attendants’ calls were excerpted in the Sept. 11 Commission report. Also public are parts of the cell phone calls made by some passengers. A Hollywood movie re-enacting the flight is to be released later this month.
