F-16 Pilots Considered Ramming Flight 93

Aviation Week and Space Technology ^ | 9/9/02 | William B. Scott

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Thanks for the post. Even if it was posted LAST YEAR as noted by Oldeconomybuyer, which by the way I think is being a bit tickey. But whatever. It is still interesting info.

I guess Oldeconomybuyer would prefer that you just bump the old post. But I have run posts before and quite often if you don't have the exact headline under which an article has already been posted, the computer won't find anything relating to your article that you want to post.

[Blackyce]

I'm still amazed that, over the years we've spent trillions of dollars on a military that cant ecen scramble a single armed aircrat 30 minutes after the capital of the country was attacked

[isthisnickcool]

I love the grahpic mind if I borrow it???

I had the same question. It's on my desktop now:)

I had heard that guys out of Ellington were involved in escorting AF-1. Ye-haw!

[AxelPaulsenJr]

My apologies. It was posted last night not last year.

[MD_Willington_1976]

Pick your favourite 20mm ammo here:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/20mm.htm

http://www.atk.com/defense/descriptions/products/20mm-overview.htm

http://www.rocket.com/mca.html

http://www.tpub.com/aviord321/65.htm

[HairOfTheDog]

I don't fault our response at all.... That tastes bitter. We were hit with an attack we would never let ourselves imagine, and yet within hours we we developing a plan to deal with a completely new world. On 9/10, the is not a chance in Hell we should have ever considered shooting down an American airliner over our own country, and yet within 30 minutes we were ready to do just that. We can expect no more of ourselves.

[Spunky]

The next time you are on a commercial flight and look out the window and see this - maybe you should say a Prayer.

My first experience flying was from Los Angeles to San Jose. We had just reached flying altitude, the stewardess was up pushing her cart down the isles serving beverages. All of a sudden we dropped thousands of feet. I looked out the window and saw a needle nose jet (looked like and f-16) just barely go over the top of us.

Needless to say I don't fly anymore.

[taxcontrol]

Sorry I don't buy this.

20-mm. "ball" ammunition will rip right through the engine / cockpit of any commercial aircraft. If they were armed with 20mm ball, any commercial aircraft could have easily been taken down.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for posting this incredible story. The skills and adaptability of our men and women in our current military is incredible.

Thanks to Billie for this great gif. This is what post 9/11/01 is all about:

[Musket]

And one year later, pilots still unarmed, borders still open, possible tens of thousands of 'sleepers' living amoungst us. Unbelievable. P.C. is gonna be the death of us.

[Squantos]

I'll share a personal e-mail with ya'll from a friend that flies KC-10's............

To make a long, long story short, here's the brief: I was actually flying that morning on my annual checkride. We took off single ship at 0810 and headed north to meet up with some cargo jets and do routine refueling training. We past NYC at 0825... I remember looking at the city and thinking, "yep, there's New York...same ol' same ol' " (if I only knew).

About that time, we started getting some strange vectors that we don't normally get for some traffic that the air traffic controllers were having problems with. Then a few minutes later, the FAA was broadcasting that all airborne aircraft need to secure their cockpits to the maximum extent possible..etc...etc.... Okay, that was something we had never heard before! Not much for us to do, but we had a clue something was up... a hijacking somewhere probably.

At 0845 (when the first bldg was hit, we were 50 miles north of NYC). Later, the FAA was insisting that everyone land asap, except military aircraft were to return to base immediately. We started heading south... Boston Center (air traffic control) then asked us the strangest question of the day... they told us we needed to proceed visually, that they were evacuating the bldg.

Now, we were at 23,000 feet and normally, you CAN'T fly visually above 18,000. The controller said we couldn't hit any other plane because we were the only ones flying in the NE of the USA. Which, was the weirdest thing!!!! Normally, the NE USA is one of the busiest airspaces in the world. Flying alone there, was something unimaginable (as was everything that day).

When we agreed to cancel our instrument clearance, the controller ended with, "well, I'm evacuating the bldg now, no one will be on this frequency, God Bless you".... Wait, Wait, Wait... what's that God Bless You stuff about? He never ended with that before! Now we're really wondering what's going on.

Right then, we look out and sure enough, there' s NYC with smoke filling the skies. We could see it clear as day. Abeam NYC we were told to make contact on a national defense frequency that I had only read about. Here's where it gets to the part that I probably shouldn't talk too much about... Needless to say... it was strange... we were doing procedures that I've done for years in the middle east but never dreamed of doing over the US.

We ended up refueling some of the fighters that scrambled to help, but were too late. While flying around we managed to find a AM radio station frequency on one of our radios which was telling the news... it was amazing listening to the radios about what was going on while looking out our windshield and watching NYC burn from the sky.

We finally landed back at XXXXXXXXXXXXX...etc....

Sorry to have to edit it a bunch but this gives ya a good idea as to view from the sky per se.....as does this article in the thread above.

Stay Safe ......

[Squantos]

Ping to #31....Stay Safe !

[logic101.net]

Well hey, F-16's shouldn't be armed. Neither should pilots of jet liners. Only Secret Service agents protecting Clinton should have guns! Come on guys, let's get our priorities straight! There might have been some eeeevil Conservatives in the Pentagon that needed to be killed. Pilots, well; can't trust them - many are former military. And passengers in planes; well most are rich capitalist conservatives!

Besides; how can we trust the military with real bullets?

Yep, the Clinton Legacy alright!

Makes me sick that the main-line media can't see it.

MARK A SITY
http://www.logic101.net/

[TankerKC]

I'm still amazed that, over the years we've spent trillions of dollars on a military that cant ecen scramble a single armed aircrat 30 minutes after the capital of the country was attacked

IMHO it isn't a matter of money, it is a matter of posture. We are on the same budget, with the same equipment, now and I betcha we can scrabble a few rather quickly.

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for the ping and your very interesting replies.

I can remember being at sea when JFK was killed. We got a US radio station which kept us posted on what was happening.

[Howlin]

Maybe the White House should have made "the plea" PRIOR to Flight 77 hitting the Pentagon.

Planes were scrambled from Langley at 0924;
Flight 77 struck the Pentagon at 0938.

[Howlin]

This article concerns Andrews; Langley scrambled planes by 0924; the Pentagon was hit at 0938.

There has always been this discussion about Andrews; the head of NORAD said that up until 9-11 fighters weren't stationed at Andrews; some of this article is wrong, and some of it is urban legend.

[stlrocket]

Hey Musket - Have you seen this?

WELCOME TO THE FLIGHTDECK MUHUMMED

HOW THEY SNEAK INTO THE USA

[southland]

Liberals consider ir a better policy to shoot down hijacked airliners rather than let the pil;ots carry a weapon to whwart hijacking in the first place/

[Tuco-bad]

Planes were scrambled from Langley at 0924;
Flight 77 struck the Pentagon at 0938.

NORAD ordered planes from Otis scrambled at 8:30 a.m.

Andrews AFB is 5 miles outside of D.C.

Wonder how many people were "sleeping at the switch" on Sept. 11th.

My suggestions: No more military parades, no more air shows until we win the war.