F-16 pilot was ready to ram hijacked plane on 9/11

[Leros]

This makes no sense. Why would your first thought be to ram two jets into a plane, rather than shoot it down? The jets were armed with rounds intended to take planes down.

What the fuck?

Read the article. These jets were equipped for training exercises. They weren't carrying live ammo.

 

[pcgeek11]

??? im sorry but 105 rounds is more than enough to take down a 737. 2-3 20mm in one engine would do it no problem.

That is what I was thinking too. If a bird can do it 210 Lead 20mm Bullets could.

her story sounds good After the fact. I think it is BS.

 

[Alone]

Read the article. These jets were equipped for training exercises. They weren't carrying live ammo.

With only 105 lead-nosed bullets on board, Penney and Colonel Marc Sasseville took to the skies, while two other F-16s waited to be armed with heat-seeking AIM-9

210 combined bullets seems more than enough to take down a commercial aircraft.

 

[OutHouse]

Read the article. These jets were equipped for training exercises. They weren't carrying live ammo.

i read both. one says they had lead and the other says dummy... so which is it?

dummy rounds are inert, meaning no powder why would you have those on a training mission? Other than practice for the munitions guys loading the A/C having dummy rounds serves no purpose. i call bs on her whole story.

"Her mission: Find United Flight 93 – and destroy it however she could.
But in a fighter jet absent of missiles and packed only with dummy ammunition from a recent training mission"


"With only 105 lead-nosed bullets on board, Penney and Colonel Marc Sasseville took to the skies, while two other F-16s waited to be armed with heat-seeking AIM-9"

 

[foghorn67]

can someone tell me how fucking long it takes to arm an F-16? Were we this unprepared for our nation's capital? Granted we have high powered radar that will pickup any incoming hostile aircraft hundreds if not thousands of miles out, but come on.... Even if there are no armed F-16s ready to go, you'd think we have a plan to arm them and launch them within minutes....

When DEFCON is at certain alert level, planes are armed and fueled.

under peactime, we rely on NORAD, Navy and Coast Guard nets and ground radar looking for hostile threats, meaning anything without IFF's. There are tens of thousands of airliners in the air, all of them blasting out signals they are friendly, and all regulated to a flight plan.

Threats from enemies or former enemies come over the arctic circle. We routinely intercept Russians testing our response. But that's all done thousands of miles from the mainland.

Threats to the mainland using bombers or fighters are highly improbable for catching us off guard.
Fast movers don't have the range unless they are carrier base. And the whole world knows where the carrier strike groups are.
Flying "under the radar" is great way to waste fuel, so nothing is range without refueling.

F-16's wouldn't be the ideal intercept aircraft either. They are fighter bombers that were designed to fight it's way out of hornets nest by being a close combat fighter. Their typical armament are sidewinders, which are meant to bring down other fighters, not bombers.

The F-15 and F-22's would be better. They have more powerful radars that enable them to shoot down aircraft miles and miles away using a bigger warhead.

Sidewinders are IR, and are designed to shred the engine, not the plane. The shrapnel throws out a ring of wires that cut into the engine. If they blow a fighter in half, it's a rare bonus.

Nobody tested them against an airliner. It could just blow the engine off, or tear the fuselage in half, who knows.

Sparrows and AAMRAMS were designed to shoot the bigger aircraft at a longer distance.

I'm ignorant on the AAMRAM program though, the F-16 was probably involved with that, but I don't know.

The question I have is, why aren't are fighters loaded with rounds for their canons? Those 20mm's would shred anything out of the sky.

But during training exercising, planes aren't loaded with anything.

 

[Alone]

"Her mission: Find United Flight 93 – and destroy it however she could.
But in a fighter jet absent of missiles and packed only with dummy ammunition from a recent training mission"

Lol. The only use I've ever found for dummy rounds is for weapon drills.

 

[irishScott]

i read both. one says they had lead and the other says dummy... so which is it?

dummy rounds are inert, meaning no powder why would you have those on a training mission? Other than practice for the munitions guys loading the A/C having dummy rounds serves no purpose. i call bs on her whole story.

"Her mission: Find United Flight 93 – and destroy it however she could.
But in a fighter jet absent of missiles and packed only with dummy ammunition from a recent training mission"


"With only 105 lead-nosed bullets on board, Penney and Colonel Marc Sasseville took to the skies, while two other F-16s waited to be armed with heat-seeking AIM-9"

Maybe the ground crew were running weapons tests and the dummy ammo was just left in for the training mission to save time? Maybe they were just sloppy and forgot it was loaded?

There are plenty of rational explanations, don't crucify her yet. This isn't an ATOT poster making the claim.

 

[infoiltrator]

An airliner is a large target but actually making hits with a very limited number of nonexplosive "training" rounds could be difficult. The effectiveness of these rounds seemed doubtful to the pilots anyway..frangible maybe.
The mission was "stop the airliner". Rules of engagement might have included expending rounds in an attempt to convince the pilot(s) to give up.
There have never been a shortage of men or women willing to protect others.
Could also be a contingency plan if all else fails.

 

[randomrogue]

Wow, talk about unprepared. Just wow. That's like driving a firetruck with no hoses.

 

[infoiltrator]

Flight training. Weapons add to the time, expense, maintenance, and service turn around time. Make no sense in a secure area.

 

[soulcougher73]

where was this story ten years ago?

They hadnt thought about it then. They had to create a good fake story with a hot female pilot to sell to the US

 

[Lean L]

I'm trying to figure out wtf is up with this news article. 10 years after the fact and it said another attack on the capital like this were yesterday. media whores.

 

[Macamus Prime]

With the exception of those who HAVE flown a fucking fighter jet,...

,.... Armchair Fighter Pilots know more gooder than an actual fighter pilot.

 

[Bignate603]

Wow, talk about unprepared. Just wow. That's like driving a firetruck with no hoses.

So you could prep and load an F-16 faster? I love the critics that come out of the woodwork in situations like this that think they know better.

 

[LTC8K6]

Someone in the transcripts of the ATC/Military radio traffic that day was using the call sign "huntress".

I think that is the call sign of EADS/NEADS though.

 

[darkxshade]

So you could prep and load an F-16 faster? I love the critics that come out of the woodwork in situations like this that think they know better.

I'm a seasoned ATOT analyst... so I don't need any kind of actual real world experience to pass judgement. Having been here more than 10 years, I've developed a sort of sixth sense about these things.

Seriously... if the F-16 isn't armed, why couldn't she just board it with a gun or rifle in tow, fly right next to the plane, roll down the window and shoot the terrorist who's flying it in the face? That would've brought down the plane without sacrificing herself.

 

[LTC8K6]

757/767 are big airliners. Both can fly perfectly fine for long distances on one engine.

Your best bet for taking one out with limited or no ammo is to take out the vertical stabilizer. Without the VS/Rudder, it will crash quickly. Taking out the VS is a guaranteed quick kill.

 

[JTsyo]

I would hope this is no longer true. Isn't DC a no fly zone? you would think they would be prepared to enforce that.

When reading about the guy that stole the tank and an other that had armored a bull dozer, I had wondered if there would be Army assets that could respond to it. Guess not.

 

[Saint Nick]

I'm trying to figure out wtf is up with this news article. 10 years after the fact and it said another attack on the capital like this were yesterday. media whores.

I said that in P&N (something about sensationalist media causing a hubub) and got reamed for it. Lol.

 

[LTC8K6]

It may no longer be classified, so they are allowed to talk about it, publish a book.

 

[LTC8K6]

I would hope this is no longer true. Isn't DC a no fly zone? you would think they would be prepared to enforce that.

When reading about the guy that stole the tank and an other that had armored a bull dozer, I had wondered if there would be Army assets that could respond to it. Guess not.

Well, if you enforce it by shooting down an airliner over DC, you are going to kill a lot of people on the ground.

Of course if the hijackers have an objective, then the job may well be to deny them that objective, even if it means shooting the plane down over downtown Baltimore.

 

[waggy]

those saying 105 rounds is enough to take down a plane do know the F-16 fires 6,000 rounds per second? so the odds on hitting the engine in the very very short burst is very low.

but i am sure everyone knew that was just trolling.


I do remember reading (on 911 in the week it happened) that they had jets fallowing flight 93 and they were not armed. was talk of a kamikaze run if they had to. This is not a new story..just now they have a cute pilot to go with it

 

[LTC8K6]

those saying 105 rounds is enough to take down a plane do know the F-16 fires 6,000 rounds per second? so the odds on hitting the engine in the very very short burst is very low.

but i am sure everyone knew that was just trolling.

Yeah, it's about a 1 second burst. Good luck.

Better to ram the VS from behind with your wing and hope you can successfully eject after.

 

[Genx87]

Stories like this make me realize how movies are so hilariously wrong about the ready status of our country to defend itself. Sending up F-16s without the means to take down the threat. Brilliant!

 

[trmiv]

Yeah, it's about a 1 second burst. Good luck.

Better to ram the VS from behind with your wing and hope you can successfully eject after.

Yea here's an F-16 firing a 1 second burst

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeH2_DpnUdE

Pretty damn quick.

But I'm sure all the expert pilots here on ATOT could hit a moving target with that and still have 50 rounds left to show off.