Can we just back up a minute here and comment on this.
I’ll take her story at face value. It may not be true, but if it is, who made the decision for us to be defenseless in our own nation?
Boy I’d like to see the chain of command on that one, and prosecute anyone who allowed us to be that vulnerable.
That’s just criminal negligence. Makes me furious if true.
Wow! I read rumors of this at the time. I still remember when it was determined that there was one plane still on the loose. The others had already landed or were heading to ground. It was a truly horrifying moment.
I don’t buy it. And I know she should not be talking about it.
No.
I was under the impression we always had a few Air Force fighter jets at select bases ready and armed at a moments notice to defend our homeland...
“I don’t buy it.”
I do. Even today there are people that think we can go to Ukraine and kick some Russian butt, even though it was Russia that has been MODERNIZING their military and developing NEW WEAPONS (often better than anything we have, including a sub-launched nuke with 10 large MIRVs, making our Tridents look like cap guns) for the past 20 years, while all we did was SHUT DOWN program after program during that time.
It makes perfect sense that our ARROGANCE prevented us from having the ability to launch an armed aircraft then...since we have that same level of ARROGANCE, or worse, now.
Unfortunately we will probably have to get another Pearl Harbor type black eye to wake up again.
the Soviets had a better maneuver for this situation
Interesting, but not really news. The Washington Post interviewed her and the other pilot three years ago. I don’t know why the media is treating this like the first time she has spoken about the matter.
Thanks for posting.
I don’t believe the story.
The reasons for the US to tell it to itself are many and compelling.
The reasons it might be true are ... unreasonable.
If it is true, then this country is completely doomed, whereas, if the story is false, then we are only almost certainly doomed :-)
That said, this notion of flying our own plane into our own plane ... we did that in 2008 and maxed the throttle in 2012.
I live about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh and about an hour northwest of Shanksville, where Flight 93 crashed. I was glued to the TV that morning. Flight 93 flew towards Cleveland and U-turned towards Pittsburgh. Everybody thought it was going to hit downtown Pittsburgh. Many tall buildings around town were evacuated. When it seemed that the plane passed Pittsburgh, I saw several fighter jets fly overhead. That was when everybody figured that Flight 93 was heading towards DC.
Very inspiring.
i read this many years ago. scary to be put in such a position. i have no doubt both pilots would have done it.
I’m a bit foggy, but I think the Mass ANG scrambled 2 alert F-15’s from cape cod. They were vectored onto flt 93. They were armed and cleared to shoot. The airliner crashed prior to their arrival.
I am a former alert/interceptor pilot that sat a lot of alert prior to 9/11 with fully armed planes.
Just researched it a bit. Yes, 2 F-16’s from Langley were initially sent toward flt 93. But two armed F-15 from Otis ANG were also airborne and would have been able to shoot down the airliner.
Bottom line, no ramming required. Also, no way flt 93 was going to make it’s planned target. White house or capital bldg.
Years ago the AF had a maneuver to do exactly this. It was called a “slide-by” and was part of Air Defense Command’s (ADC) plan to defend America against a Soviet Bison and Bear attack. After all weapons had been expended by the interceptor pilot he was to be vectored to a position parallel to the flight path of the bomber. The interceptor pilot would then pull back and into the wing root of the bomber to bring it down. I know because I was one of the controllers.
If true, it would be morally reprhensible to kill the innocents on that plane directly even to save other lives on the ground. Like Americans do not do intentional, direct evil that good may come of it
It is fitting that the woman pilot, and not the man, would be talking out of school.
When they ran out of ammo they would fly up close to a German bomber an use their prop to slice off the tail fin....
so de-stabilizing the bomber which went into a tail spin...
The Russian pilot then bailed out to fight another day.
So Pilot Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney just needs to make a high speed close pass ant take out the vertical fin then hit the eject button.
I would have collided the fighter into the vertical stabilizer. Stabilizer would break off relatively easily I would think.