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

[waggy]

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.

and at that rate of fire thats 6k bullets. 105 bullets? yeah..not going to happen.

 

[paulney]

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.

It's per minute, not per second.

 

[lupi]

I worked with a guy who had done a tour with stratcom during that time. He talked about being in one of their c&c rooms with direct feeds from white house/pentagon and such. He got to hear first hand all the craziness going on including trying to get planes in the air and the kill orders that went out to them.

 

[waggy]

It's per minute, not per second.

my bad haven't had coffee. but still does not change a damn thing.


105 bullets in a machine that fires that fast IS NOTHING. sure they might get off a lucky s hot. but the odds are very low.

i am surprised they do not have some ready though. It makes sense that they wouldn't but i am shocked.

 

[PimpJuice]

ding dong ding dong! anyone home?? i knew about the idea of kamikaze attack in general back in middle school. WWII history class. and this was in a detroit public school. sorry you went to a ghetto school and learned about this so late on life

ding dong ding dong! You're an idiot!

 

[LTC8K6]

A little research shows that the F-16 carries 511 rounds total for the gun. To prevent wasting ammo, the system uses a burst controller. You can get 2-3 round, or 40-50 round bursts. So, you could conceivably use the gun and just 105 rounds to shoot down a 757.

 

[911paramedic]

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!

Depends where you are and what the alert status of the country is. If there was an aircraft carrier anywhere around they would have been loaded for bear and ready to go, but they are a warship.

On a side note, the pilots that fly these planes are really the cream of the crop, tested (physically and mentally) and background checked like crazy before they even get near their first day of training. I fully believe they would have done whatever was needed to bring down that plane if it came to that. It sounds really gross, but she was showing sack that day and I'm damn proud to have her flying for us. :thumbsup:

 

[Deeko]

ding dong ding dong! anyone home?? i knew about the idea of kamikaze attack in general back in middle school. WWII history class. and this was in a detroit public school. sorry you went to a ghetto school and learned about this so late on life

What is wrong with you?

 

[randomrogue]

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.

lol

Why do we not have prepared defenses in place? How long does it take to load some weapons on a fighter jet?

I recall the main problem being finding the planes and that I can accept but not that we sent up unarmed fighter jets. That's just ridiculous.

 

[Red Squirrel]

This 9/11 thing always had me thinking, right from the start. Why can't they have a system where the airport control tower can take over an aircraft and remotely controll it? Basically some kind of emergency system they could use durring a highjack.

 

[Deeko]

This 9/11 thing always had me thinking, right from the start. Why can't they have a system where the airport control tower can take over an aircraft and remotely controll it? Basically some kind of emergency system they could use durring a highjack.

What if such a system existed, and someone hijacked the tower?

 

[Red Squirrel]

What if such a system existed, and someone hijacked the tower?

It would be an extremly secure system. Passwords, multiple person authentication etc. Heck, it could even require the president to turn a key at the white house or something. This would be for seviere emergencies. Or maybe it could even be automated though that would be harder. Basically if it's activated it just tells the plane to fly itself to the nearest airport or something, but that would be insane to setup, so much to take account for such as which runway to use etc.

 

[paulney]

It would be an extremly secure system. Passwords, multiple person authentication etc. Heck, it could even require the president to turn a key at the white house or something. This would be for seviere emergencies.

Easier just to have Superman on standby.

 

[randomrogue]

Lets lojack jumbo jets. Can autopilot land planes?

I suppose we can just send them up into space to piss them off. How pissed off would you be if you were a hijacker and the stupid plane flew up there? I know I'd be pretty upset.

 

[paulney]

Lets lojack jumbo jets. Can autopilot land planes?

I suppose we can just send them up into space to piss them off. How pissed off would you be if you were a hijacker and the stupid plane flew up there? I know I'd be pretty upset.

If it was a UPS plane with my Newegg 3-day guaranteed shipment on it, I'd be pretty pissed off. In fact, pissed off enough to call and demand a $10 GC refund. Maybe even $20.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Lets lojack jumbo jets. Can autopilot land planes?

I suppose we can just send them up into space to piss them off. How pissed off would you be if you were a hijacker and the stupid plane flew up there? I know I'd be pretty upset.

Oops put "farthest airport" instead of "nearest". Plane lands on the moon.

 

[Analog]

Women Pilot Fail:

 

[LTC8K6]

Lets lojack jumbo jets. Can autopilot land planes?

I suppose we can just send them up into space to piss them off. How pissed off would you be if you were a hijacker and the stupid plane flew up there? I know I'd be pretty upset.

Well, we can technically put it on a runway. But not by remote.

To space? No. Not going any higher than the service ceiling. ~38-45K feet.

 

[kranky]

This thread may hold the all-time record for highest percentage of moronic replies from wannabe know-it-alls.

Two thoroughly trained pilots, thrown into a unimaginable scenario, racing to stop a threat unlike any they have trained for. These experienced pilots, who know what can be done better than the rest of the people here combined, are ready to kill themselves to stop the threat, and here we have a bunch of people who are just certain that any number of other solutions would have been better.

Hubris at its finest.

 

[PieIsAwesome]

Were these dummy rounds or something? I don't really understand. Each plane had roughly 20% of its ammunition loaded, and the cannon allows for small 2-3 round bursts, as someone else mentioned. WWII fighters used 20mm cannons to take down bombers, and the cannons were extremely effective, they blew the bombers apart. The probably carried less ammunition than an F-16 too.

 

[randomrogue]

This thread may hold the all-time record for highest percentage of moronic replies from wannabe know-it-alls.

Two thoroughly trained pilots, thrown into a unimaginable scenario, racing to stop a threat unlike any they have trained for. These experienced pilots, who know what can be done better than the rest of the people here combined, are ready to kill themselves to stop the threat, and here we have a bunch of people who are just certain that any number of other solutions would have been better.

Hubris at its finest.

Stop making excuses. You don't get a patriotic medal of honor for making excuses for our lack of preparedness. I love my country just as much as the rest but I'm not going to pat someone on the back for racing to the scene with no weapons. An icecream truck with no icecream is just a slow ass truck playing an annoying song.

 

[Zargon]

If it was a UPS plane with my Newegg 3-day guaranteed shipment on it, I'd be pretty pissed off. In fact, pissed off enough to call and demand a $10 GC refund. Maybe even $20.

LOL well played

 

[irishScott]

Stop making excuses. You don't get a patriotic medal of honor for making excuses for our lack of preparedness. I love my country just as much as the rest but I'm not going to pat someone on the back for racing to the scene with no weapons. An icecream truck with no icecream is just a slow ass truck playing an annoying song.

Then criticize the commanders or whomever is in charge of determining when and if planes are armed. The pilots have nothing to do with that.

 

[OutHouse]

and at that rate of fire thats 6k bullets. 105 bullets? yeah..not going to happen.

dude if a trained fighter pilot can not shoot down in one burst a slow commercial airliner flying in a straight line needs turn in their wings. F-16's have electronics to do this with the vulcan weapons system. they are not using "kentucky windage" like they did in WWII.

 

[irishScott]

dude if a trained fighter pilot can not shoot down in one burst a slow commercial airliner flying in a straight line needs turn in their wings. F-16's have electronics to do this with the vulcan weapons system. they are not using "kentucky windage" like they did in WWII.

No, they're apparently using OutHouse's ATOT fairy dust.

You do realize that airliners have multiple engines right? One burst = one engine. That leaves 3 that can still fly the plane.