F-16 Pilots Considered Ramming Flight 93

Aviation Week's Aviation Now ^ | September 9, 2002 | William B. Scott

[hc87]

I did a search on this and couldn't find it already posted.

[lsee]

Wow...

[Arthur Wildfire! March]

Not to worry if it was posted. This is something. Everyone knows deep down inside that every single unarmbed pilot in the sky would have given his life to stop one of those planes. God bless them.

At the same time, I am reminded of things people tell me about WWII, Pearl Harbor, how unprepared we were. Thank you Clinton for leaving war planes stripped of weapons. Thank you so much, sir. /SARCASM [followed by spit in face].

[airborne]

If true, this ends any speculation that flight# 93 was shot down. Don't you think?

[Iscool]

I thought the Air National Guard was always armed...If not, why be there???

Must have been one of those "it couldn't happen to us" scenarios...No doubt, policies have changed...

I can't imagine killing innocent people for the good of the whole...Glad it is not I that has that responsibility...

[hc87]

One heck of a story.

It is really sad that we had no armed and ready fighters defending the nation's capitol.

Also, I was surprised that Aviation Week dispensed with the "call sign only" designation that has become part of the mass media take on any pilot-related story.

[hc87]

If true, this ends any speculation that flight# 93 was shot down. Don't you think?

Yes, among the rational. There will always be those who see a conspiracy in anything involving the US government who will view this as disinformation planted to throw people off the true story.

[Iscool]

If true

That's a mouthful there...We may never know if it's true...Probably better if we don't...

[cinFLA]

Sasseville and Lucky each had 511 rounds of ammo, but that only provided roughly a 5-sec. burst of the 20-mm. gun. And where should they shoot to ensure a hijacked aircraft would be stopped? Sasseville planned to fire from behind and "try to saw off one wing. I needed to disable it as soon as possible--immediately interrupt its aerodynamics and bring it down."

They should be able to take out the tail controls OR the cockpit!

[Poohbah]

Thank you Clinton for leaving war planes stripped of weapons.

Let's be a tad more accurate: thank you Clinton for not noticing that the Cold War was over.

The reason why there weren't enough armed fighters on alert to cover the country is simple in concept, but difficult to understand in practice.

Maintaining armed aircraft on constant alert is hard on aircrews, hard on aircraft, and leads to the occasional weapons mishap--and is thus very expensive over the long haul. To avoid these problems, the Pentagon, way back in the mists of the Cold War, "de-alerted" interceptors unless Soviet bombers were moved from operating bases deep inside the USSR (from whence they could not attack America) to forward bases in Siberia.

This made sense back in the days when the US and the USSR were engaged in the Cold War. However, the Cold War ended in 1991, and the Russian bombers began to cheerfully rust away at their main bases deep inside the XUSSR. We proceeded to de-alert our birds, and with only one exception (during the Kosovo mess in 1999), both sides stayed at low alert levels.

Nobody ever called the practice into question, even after Operation Bojinka was exposed in 1995. That's where those with at least the good sense God gave a crabapple should have started asking, "Why are we doing things like this?"

[11th Earl of Mar]

It was posted last week, but your article has more information.

And it is very interesting to remember how strongly the Pentagon denied earlier this year that F-16s were prepared to shoot down the plane.

Come to find out, they were telling the truth.

The F-16s had no ammo! They couldn't shoot it down. So they were going to ram it down. lol

[wattsmag2]

BIGUNS!!!

[VaBthang4]

Pretty verbose...

Anyway, ball rounds will take down an airliner without a problem and the pilots who were out of ammo could've simply ejected before making contact with the airliners.

I am proud of their willingness to sacrifice themselves but it probably wouldnt have been required.

****DRAMAQUEEN ALERT****

[Thud]

ping

[Lessismore]

If true, this ends any speculation that flight# 93 was shot down. Don't you think?

My recollection is that flight 93 was being chased by fighters from Ohio, where 93 had doubled back towards Washington. They had not yet caught flight 93 at the time it went down, but they were closing rapidly.

[DoughtyOne]

I know you don't mean that about the spit. Spit in that man's face would be far above what he actually deserved. It would actually be a compliment by comparison. Don't waste good spit, on that s-ithead.

[Praxeologue]

By then, Brig. Gen. David F. Wherley, Jr., the 113th Wing commander, was on-site, trying to determine whether the unit had authorization to launch fighters

... oh yes, and we can't attack Saddam without incontrovertible evidence.

Isn't there a miltary code, something like hot pursuit, where you can just do what needs to be done?

[Tuco-bad]

With Pentagon in flames and hijacked aircraft threatening Washington, White House scrambled fighters with little or no armament.

Interesting that over 1.25 hours earlier, NORAD ordered fighters scrambled from Otis AFB.

Wonder why it took so long to scramble jets at Andrews.

[vetvetdoug]

Sometimes there is a General with his head screwed on right. General McKee was the USAF commander in Okinawa the day the Pueblo was attacked by the North Koreans. He had no authorization and the Navy did not want his help. He took it upon himself to order a squadron to the Pueblo with orders to shoot the North Koreans out of the water if they were out of the harbor. Unfortunately, they got there a few minutes after the Pueblo was in the communist port. Of course, General McKee caught hell for his actions but was the only General, Navy or otherwise, to go to the help of the Pueblo.

[supercat]

Not to worry if it was posted. This is something. Everyone knows deep down inside that every single unarmbed pilot in the sky would have given his life to stop one of those planes. God bless them.

Wouldn't there be other ways the fighter could take down the airliner? Correct me if I'm wrong, but a fighter jet in full afterburner leaves a rather nasty wake. Engaging afterburners immediately in front of a commercial airliner would probably cause it a few problems...