[pieceofthepuzzle]

“I believe the story is apocryphal. It’s hard to imagine that on the whole eastern seaboard not one Jet was scramble ready and armed.”

It is hard to believe. Maybe they did have air-to-air missiles, but these were judged not capable of bringing down a passenger plane that big? I have no idea what I'm talking about here, so go easy...

[xone]

Maybe they did have air-to-air missiles, but these were judged not capable of bringing down a passenger plane that big?

The engines are small, the target of the IR missiles. Once you do some damage, aerodynamics forces do the rest for you.