Posted on 09/10/2016 7:44:20 PM PDT by Leaning Right
When Heather Penney entered the cockpit of her F-16 fighter jet on Sept. 11, 2001, she knew it was unlikely she would ever survive. Her task? Take down the United Airlines Flight 93 that was unaccounted for after two planes struck the Twin Towers.
She would have to do so in an unarmed fighter jet because equipping the plane with missiles would require too much time. Her plane would be the weapon; it was essentially a suicide mission. Penney never completed the job, though, because Flight 93 crashed as brave passengers wrestled control from the hijackers while it flew over Pennsylvania.
(Excerpt) Read more at popsugar.com ...
Thanks for the chuckle.
To take it down by "other means," if...
It is headed to another high population city after FL 93 was located and its heading established.
But it crashed before it was located by the fighters sent after it.
Agree.
That government was led by some clown who publicly spouted the totally baseless idiocy that Islam is a religion of peace and many, even today, agree with that statement. That’s why we have some vague Kenyan with the name of Hussein dirtying the toilets in the WH.
Never mind ready with crew AND ammo.
F16 carries a 20mm nose cannon. There is Zero Reasons for an on duty patrol fighter to fly with that cannon unloaded, and it could easily have taken down the passenger jet. This story is ridiculous.
I think she had a decent chance. The Luftwaffe created a ramming squadron to go after bombers. They took down around 20 bombers and had a slightly better than 50% survival rate. And that’s without ejection seats.
Not counting the KIAs who got out, but that we shot as they hung in parachutes.
>> because equipping the plane with missiles would require too much time.
More important than the pilot’s gonads.
“If the U.S. military couldn’t scramble an armed fighter jet from Andrews Air Force Base to deal with a threat to the nation’s capitol, then everyone in the Pentagon should have been lined up and executed the next day.”
Easy there Stalin. Maybe we just fire them? And really, honestly, DC getting hit is emotional, but that’s about it. they really aren’t THAT important except to themselves. it was much worse of an impact to the nation for Manhattan to get hit.
I can make a sound argument that the Tsar Bomba going off over DC would be analogous to flushing the toilet. And the winds are eastward also.
They aren’t normally sitting on the ramp with loaded cannon rounds. Ask some USAF here how fighters are normally parked if they aren’t on a status.
Yeah... accepting and going on a ramming mission is heroic. Getting called back wasn’t her choice. People have had a record of “engine running hot” and turning back before. In WWII it happened a lot.
And firemen and cops who ran into the center, and Marines who have been in infantry combat mostly won’t be running her down.
The base I worked at had munitions pretty much at ready to go. Typically the F-16 is not designed for kamakaze missions. It’s why they have universal missile racks and quick load chain driven ammo
It demonstrates a lack of preparation for emergency. Maybe that was status quo pre-9/11. I can assure you that is not the case now.
The first part of this statement is simply untrue.
Note the part about crashing one of the aircraft into CIA headquarters in Virginia.
Ben Sliney was my first line supervisor in the 70’s.I got to talk to him years later about 9/11 and the aftermath.
Is our defense readiness that poor?
Since the general meme puts a male in one's mind when "fighter pilot" is mentioned, I'll forgive it. Descriptions are good if used appropriately......
Or Bolling AFB in Southeast D.C.
Thanks for posting. I had not heard this story.
I ask, “Why were unarmed fighters protecting President Bush’s plane at this crucial time?” Does that mean there were no armed planes close by at McDill, Eglin, Tyndall, NAS Pensacola, huh??
That’s very powerful, thank you for the link...
Prior to 9/11 there were only six fighters on ready status in the entire country including Alaska. As I recall the armed/ready ones were already sent to New York and were bingo fuel. Hench this move. 9/11 was a complete cluster and NORAD made significant errors.
The choice to ram it and ride the plane into as opposed to getting it close and ejecting before it hit would have been her choice, she wasn't ordered to ride it in as a suicide mission.
I do have an issue with the people who are putting this out as a heroic act, and doing so simply because she is a woman, exactly as they did with the Jessica Lynch fiasco. Very likely even the exact same people
This is an example of the work by the linked author, so it is pretty clear she has an agenda to push:
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