F-16 pilot was ready to die...9-11

• -Society-

  

  No live ammunition...ordered to bring down United Airlines Flight 93.
  
  http://hamptonroads.com/node/613757
• jmog

  -Society-;889785 wrote:No live ammunition...ordered to bring down United Airlines Flight 93.
  
  http://hamptonroads.com/node/613757

  What an amazing story and an amazing couple pilots.
• imex99

  

  Great story, going to be some interesting stories released in years to come of things they've never told us...
  
  Sent from my PG86100 using Tapatalk
• 1_beast

  

  badass story!!! What courage!
• gut

  I always had a little suspicion 93 had been shot down. Guess not.
  
  Also, I didn't know we gave orders for suicide missions. Also assumed they would take volunteers.
• Mohican00

  

  gut;890338 wrote:I always had a little suspicion 93 had been shot down. Guess not.
  
  Also, I didn't know we gave orders for suicide missions. Also assumed they would take volunteers.

  I still think it was shot down
• Fab1b

  

  Mohican00;890425 wrote:I still think it was shot down

  This is the only conspiracy theory I will entertain about 9-11 is flight 93, I think we took it down as well. </SPAN>
• gut

  Fab1b;890429 wrote:This is the only conspiracy theory I will entertain about 9-11 is flight 93, I think we took it down as well.

  Agreed. And just because these pilots didn't take it down doesn't mean it wasn't. But I think this story is obviously legit - too unnecessary to be a cover story.
• GoJPM!

  

  That morning, shortly before 10, a co-worker and I stepped outside. The skies were clear and was bright and sunny. Looking up, we saw two fighter jets screaming through the sky north of us, maybe northeast. They were heading somewhere. Where? One can only think. However, later, hearing about Flight 93 had me wondering if those two fighters helped bring it down. I know everyone loves the heroism of those passengers who, supposedly said, "let's roll!," and stormed the cockpit but I know what I saw that morning and always wondered if those passengers were soley responsible for bringing Flight 93 down.
• gut

  GoJPM!;890485 wrote:That morning, shortly before 10, a co-worker and I stepped outside. The skies were clear and was bright and sunny. Looking up, we saw two fighter jets screaming through the sky north of us, maybe northeast. They were heading somewhere. Where? One can only think. However, later, hearing about Flight 93 had me wondering if those two fighters helped bring it down. I know everyone loves the heroism of those passengers who, supposedly said, "let's roll!," and stormed the cockpit but I know what I saw that morning and always wondered if those passengers were soley responsible for bringing Flight 93 down.

  I fly a lot, and although I've only tried a few times, I've never had a signal at 30,000 feet. Not saying those tapes/calls aren't legit, but I'm skeptical.
• gut

  So no one is going to point out that the woman was prepared to die to see the mission succeed, while the man was trying to figure out how to eject?
• GoJPM!

  

  Where are the fighter squadrons in Ohio based? Flight 93 was approaching Cleveland before it u-turned and started heading east.
• raiderbuck

  True American Badass, her and her Commander.
• Glory Days

  

  gut;890503 wrote:So no one is going to point out that the woman was prepared to die to see the mission succeed, while the man was trying to figure out how to eject?

  no, she thought about ejecting too. it was just a matter of how the question was asked and the way the responses were printed.

  Penney worried about missing the target if she tried to bail out.
  "If you eject and your jet soars through without impact..." she trails off, the thought of failing more dreadful than the thought of dying.

  thats like saying no one pointed out how the woman was worried about failing because she said "god dont let me fuck up" instead of getting her ass in the air like the male pilot did.
• bases_loaded

  

  Glory...that was a pilots prayer, I think its just a common thing all say when on a mission.
  
  Gut...the plane wasn't at 30,000 feet when those calls were being made it was flying low for quite a long time if I remember correctly.
  
  I'm sure plenty of planes were scrambled so it isn't surprising that someone saw military fighter jets screaming across the sky early that morning. I need to watch the George W interview again because it had a scene with the fighters escorting Air Force one and to see if they had any munitions on them as she said in her interview they escorted the President.
• Manhattan Buckeye

  1) The flight was not even close to 30,000 feet at the time of the revolt, I highly doubt the terrorists were concerned about the fuel efficiency of a continental length flight. At the height they were likely flying cell phones would be easily active.
  
  2) This is a UA flight (duh), but my father-in-law's partner works out of DFW for AA....he wasn't privy to the pattern at the time but will confirm that if anything shot a bird down, it would take at the minimum thousands of people to hide that information.
  
  At some point conspiracy theories fall flat on the surface, the surface being the idea that the truth could be hidden is more preposterous than the truth itself.
• GoJPM!

  

  The fighters I saw could have been dispatched to look for any airliners that may have not landed or strayed off their flight pattern? I think it's pretty obvious that they had orders to shoot down any airliner that refused to respond or appeared to be deliberately flying off their intended route.
• gut

  GoJPM!;891855 wrote:The fighters I saw could have been dispatched to look for any airliners that may have not landed or strayed off their flight pattern? I think it's pretty obvious that they had orders to shoot down any airliner that refused to respond or appeared to be deliberately flying off their intended route.

  Although the article does comment how no planes were readied "hot", and that it would take an hour or two to do so. However, I think the pilots in the article took off from NV? That's a good 3-4 hours to PA and certainly a plane could from a closer base could have been armed and dispatched before they even got there.
• GOONx19

  

  It'd take less than two hours for an F-16.
• Captain Cavalier

  

  Manhattan Buckeye;891077 wrote:1) The flight was not even close to 30,000 feet at the time of the revolt, I highly doubt the terrorists were concerned about the fuel efficiency of a continental length flight. At the height they were likely flying cell phones would be easily active.
  
  2) This is a UA flight (duh), but my father-in-law's partner works out of DFW for AA....he wasn't privy to the pattern at the time but will confirm that if anything shot a bird down, it would take at the minimum thousands of people to hide that information.
  
  At some point conspiracy theories fall flat on the surface, the surface being the idea that the truth could be hidden is more preposterous than the truth itself.

  Agreed.
  
  Wouldn't the terrorists be be trying to fly under the radar and therefore in better cell phone range?
  
  Can't the cell phone calls be verified?
• Manhattan Buckeye

  Captain Cavalier;892469 wrote:Agreed.
  
  Wouldn't the terrorists be be trying to fly under the radar and therefore in better cell phone range?
  
  Can't the cell phone calls be verified?

  Yes, add that to the thousands of people needed to keep this "conspiracy" quiet.
• GoJPM!

  

  gut;892296 wrote:Although the article does comment how no planes were readied "hot", and that it would take an hour or two to do so. However, I think the pilots in the article took off from NV? That's a good 3-4 hours to PA and certainly a plane could from a closer base could have been armed and dispatched before they even got there.

  The article said those jets were loaded with dummy ammo from two weeks of training exercises in Nevada. Not sure if article implied just those jets from Nevada or all jets period. That would blow my mind if there wasn't a single fighter jet, stateside, armed and ready to go. Innocent times brought about some complacency, on our part, then.
• Pick6

  

  sort of off topic, but i got in a pretty heated argument with some people who believe in all the 9/11 conspiracies. Really pissed me off. And yes, I've seen the documentaries just because I have a general interest in all conspiracy theories.
• sportchampps

  My friend is an air traffic controller and was on that horriable day. I aksed him what he thought ans he said there was pretty much no way they could have shot it down with no one knowing. He also said it was utter chaos and finding places for all the planes to be grounded and in what order was total chaos.
• majorspark

  

  Manhattan Buckeye;892516 wrote:Yes, add that to the thousands of people needed to keep this "conspiracy" quiet.

  This is a big reason why I don't buy into conspiracy theories. Add to that all the evidence that proves otherwise in this case. Cell conversations and cockpit recorders say otherwise. If flight 93 were shot down it would have broken up in the air and the debris field would have been scattered. Likely with the amount of fuel on board for a transcontinental flight it would have exploded in the air. Some of you need to take your tin foil hats off.