There is a dedicated group of individuals who are working diligently and thoroughly to document technical information pertaining to the flight of AA 77. Their work builds on the work of the Commission and extends that work in depth and detail. One such individual is Tom Lusch whose interest is the radar coverage issue. Here is a portion of his vitae.
Tom Lusch is a Certified Professional Controller with over 28 years of experience in the enroute, terminal, and tower options of the Federal Aviation Administration’s air traffic control system. In 1992, a paper he authored, “Real Targets – Unreal Displays: The inadvertent suppression of critical radar data” was republished in the Journal of Air Traffic Control (link) His treatise focused on the low-altitude environment.
As demonstrated with the vanishing of AA 77 from the screens at Indianapolis Center, the processing of multiple radar data remained a challenge for the FAA. On his web site he counters the contention that there was “…poor primary coverage where American 77 was flying.” (link). His thesis is that the problem was radar data processing not radar coverage.