Posted on 09/07/2011 11:04:05 PM PDT by Shalmaneser
Major Heather Penney recounts the drama in the skies after District of Columbia Air National Guard pilots scrambled to intercept incoming hostile planes. She describes why F-16’s initially took off from Andrews Air Force Base unarmed – and what she was prepared to do to bring down a plane piloted by terrorists.
Fascinating woman, Major Penney.
I’ve heard on pretty good authority that the debris field was eight miles long.
In the summer of 2010, my grandson ran heavy equipment with the construction company that did the preliminary work for the memorial park and they stayed near Shanksville. He told me that most of the people they (construction workers) talked to in restaurants and around where they stayed told them the plane was shot down.
Again, just locals opinion and nothing to confirm it but their eyesight.
Oh yea, another thing they mentioned was that the debris was scattered for miles.
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And in Tehran, they said it was the Jews, and they even said so--wait for it--repeatedly.
It doesn't bother me that someone who cannot discern signal from noise posts on the Internet.
It does, however, bother me that you vote in our elections.
That was an incredible interview. Candid and honest. Worth the time for sure. Very proud to have this person in the skies prtecting me. Quality all the way.
But at least they're inconveniencing and humiliating us every time we fly. There are some steps they're willing to take.
Wind, pressure, and temperature determine smoke dispersal. It is rarely the same.
I cleaned up an accident where a small plane went down at a steep angle at high speed. The plane hit the ground in one piece and the debris field was 2 miles long.
Years ago there was an established tactic for this. It was called a “Slide By” and the way it was done was the fighter after expending all ordanance on Soviet bombers was instructed to pull up next to the fuselage just forward of a wing and then pull backwards along the fuselage until the wing was pulled off the target.
I'm a CFI-IA and have landed many "big rigs" in simulators. I have no doubt I could have safely landed the plane with or without anyone talking me down. The chance of people with a similar background to be able to land the plane being on the plane is perhaps another 1 in 4.
Hollywood oversimplifies things, of course, but it doesn't mean there aren't capable pilots other than the two up front seated aft of the locked doors.
The important point remains: if the passengers had successfully retaken the airplane and gotten on the radio, I believe they would have been sufficiently convincing to buy time. At minimum, controllers would've considered letting them make a water landing just off the coast after amassing an incredible number of emergency rescue vehicles nearby.
HF
For what it’s worth, on Mythbusters, both Adam and Jamie were successfully talked through an acceptable flight and landing of an airliner in a simulator. Each was able to make an acceptable landing with instructions relayed over the radio.
1) It would take at least two hours, maybe more, from a standing start to assemble 4 “warshots” for one sortie (two planes, two live missiles on each plane, a minimal loadout), including time to transport them to the planes and to strap them on.
2) In the 10 years before 9/11 we never needed live missiles anywhere in the Continental United States on less than 2 hours notice.
3) In the 10 years after 9/11 we never needed live missiles anywhere in the Continental United States on less than 2 hours notice.
4) Therefore they would have had to bring Flight 93 down by ramming. After 10 years we would know the name of that pilot if (s)/he existed.
Flight 93 was populated by heroes. They took the weapon out of the hands of Bin Laden's minions. If no one else, they saved the life or lives of (then) Lieutenant Penney and/or the other pilot that sortied with her. They also made possible the lives of her children, born since 9/11.
427 would have had a lot less fuel on board, whereas 93 was full for a long flight. Even if both had been full, the 757 can carry more than twice as much fuel as the 737. That could make a difference in the plume. 427 was near the end of it’s leg, so it probably had far less fuel on board than 93.
1) The passenger list of Flight 93 is well known. Can you point out the name of any deadheading pilot? One would certainly have made survival more possible, if not likely.
2) Any controlled crash attempt would more likely have been at an airport with a heavily foamed up runway, and with as many medical personnel available as could be scrounged up, and the plane on its last ten minutes of fuel.
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