If you look at 26 seconds, you can see the F-16 heading for the thing...so, I would say they were NOT caught off guard.
Why do you suppose they are saying this did not happen?
I'm pretty sure they scramble an F-16 to meet Flight 808 from Hawai'i every day.
Well... maybe not. LMAO!
That some people here still believe it was an eastbound jet (when the government that they trust for virtually nothing else is the only source of this fabrication!) is beyond irrational. Lt. General McInerny says "...definitely a missile..." and it's "just another opinion."
This is not "being fooled." This is a "sticking your head in the sand" equivalent form of abject, quivering cowardice and snivelling, mewling denial. I cannot adequately express how it turns my stomach. There was a time when "being American" meant something worth saying.
Hell, the snake eater who told me to "resist authority" is willfully sucking up the Gummint lie on this one. Go figure. Maybe he got hard really up for money and had to sell a kidney... and his spine.
But hey, to each his own, right?
;-\