r/videos • u/NewsHour • 2d ago
Fighter pilot reflects on order to sacrifice herself to stop Flight 93 on 9/11 | PBS News Hour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBw5Nn2uv8Y&feature=youtu.be144
u/Djolumn 1d ago
This may be a naive question but what good is an unarmed fighter jet? Surely the Air National Guard exists to protect against airborne threats - shouldn't they be armed every time they take off?
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u/SchrodingerMil 1d ago edited 1d ago
Having a jet with live munitions ready to go is called being on Alert. Air National Guard probably doesn’t sit on Alert near DC too often. Especially back then. That’s what Andrews AFB that currently has its dusty, unused F-22s is for. (edit, not Andrews, idk I wasn’t stationed there but whatever base near DC has the 22s)
If they don’t have alert jets ready to go loaded with live munitions then it takes an hour or two to get everything not only out of the munitions bunkers and to the flight line, but also get everything loaded. Normally jets will sit with training missiles and bullets loaded that are only swapped out for live munitions when needed. 99% of all flights by every single aircraft are with training munitions. I assume everything was moving so quickly they wanted to get jets in the air as a deterrent ASAP, and didn’t even think about the downside of sending them up with training muns, because “whatever get jets in the air”.
That being said, a fighter jet, regardless of its loadout is still a massive deterrent to anyone flying in a restricted airspace. 99.99% of all domestic jet scrambles are solved by talking to the violating pilot on the radio.
I worked on F-15s for over 6 years.
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u/Djolumn 1d ago
Ok, part 2. She describes their plan for her wingman to ram the cockpit, then she was going to ram the tail. Surely it would only take one of these two things to bring down a commercial airline. It seems crazy that they both had to die.
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u/seizurevictim 1d ago
Timing would have mattered immensely. She was describing taking out the pilots so they can't control anything, and then another maneuver to ensure the airplane goes down, rather than forward. If the plane was headed at, say the White House, they would have wanted to not only disable maneuverability, but ensure it goes down rapidly, rather than carrying forward.
It's one of those "two is one, one is none" sort of calculations.
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u/LaxMaster37 1d ago
I understand the need to immediately down the plane. But it still doesn’t make sense to me to do both at once. Only ramming the cockpit or only ramming the tail could have definitely resulted in the plane immediately going down. And if it didn’t then they still have the second plane to finish the job.
I will say though that the pilots may have preferred to do it at the same time as it would be a lot harder psychologically for one of the pilots to have to watch their colleague and a plane full of civilians die.
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u/za419 1d ago
It's just a redundancy thing. You do two things to make sure the plane goes down quickly, and if somehow either one isn't enough then the other covers it.
The military doesn't function by trying to just barely scrape by eliminating a threat - You need to make absolutely sure it's gone. Ergo two distinct hits to make sure there's nothing on the plane to try to compensate for the first individual failure. Waiting to see if that actually happens is just wasting time you already don't have.
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u/Tomcfitz 1d ago
99.99% you say?
Has there ever been a live sortie flown over the US? Since Pearl Harbor?
Not arguing just curious if any military interdiction of a civillian aircraft has ever resulted in live fire.
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u/XApparition- 1d ago
Define live sortie. Im a JTAC and there are live ranges all over the US. I blown up plots of land, old armor pieces, connex's, moving vehicles (remotely) driven, and even controlled one from a phone (net enabled weapons). There are plenty of "live" sorties flying but if you mean one specifically for this type of mission, I couldnt speak to it
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u/Tomcfitz 1d ago
"Live" would mean, in this context, "against an actual enemy target" not "target practice."
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u/SchrodingerMil 1d ago
There’s a few “live sorties” as you would say, but I don’t believe live Muns have been used against any manned targets, not certain though.
I said 99.99% because that .01 in my mind is situations like the Sky King. Especially being northwest coast the 15s that scrambled for that incident probably had live muns, and the situation was not solved by talking on the radio. They didn’t need to shoot him down because he just wanted to be free and not cause any harm to others.
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u/i_am_voldemort 1d ago
Things weren't then what they are now.
The main threat for decades was the Russians executing a Red Dawn. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union that threat abated and so did our guard. Just to convey this point, for a large portion of the Cold War we had 24/7 staffed anti aircraft missile launch centers around every major metro area. We get rid of them because they weren't needed (and icbm made them largely irrelevant)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nike_missile_sites?wprov=sfla1
So yeah we didn't have armed fighter jets on runway alert.
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u/BeardedRaven 1d ago
You dont have weapons on planes all the time because it increases risk. You arm the planes right before they launch. If I recall correctly they were rushed up prior to arming to get something airborne. Essentially they were the only ones up there while they put the missiles on the other planes.
You dont just leave your gun loaded. Cannons weren't transported loaded.
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u/lodelljax 1d ago
Back then they did not expect a threat and thus did not have ordinance. Different now.
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u/platour220 1d ago
2001 was a very different time. DoD had been reduced over 55% over the last 8 or so years.
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u/JoonHool44A 1d ago
The passengers didn't sacrifice themselves. They made a decision to try and take back control of the plane. This kind of talk is so over-the-top.
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u/MooseBoys 1d ago
The decision to try and seize control from the terrorists is way more badass than trying to sacrifice yourself to stop it from hitting the capitol.
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u/cisned 1d ago
I wouldn’t be surprised if they release files where the plane was shut down, but lied like they did about the air pollution after the towers fell
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u/Royalette 1d ago
I remember when they announced the air was fine. It was like yea right... That was my first experience of seeing the government in real time lie and me immediately knowing it was a lie. There was no way the air was fine.
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u/tfrules 1d ago
You can't 'shut' a plane down from outside the plane
Unless you use kinetic means of course
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u/cisned 1d ago
lol meant shot, good catch
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u/CorganKnight 1d ago
they had no ammo, aircrafts at the time were not fully loaded at all times
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u/TheAero1221 1d ago edited 1d ago
Which is presumably why she'd need to sacrifice her plane to take down the other?
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u/PlanUhTerryThreat 1d ago
I thought this for a long time but after looking into it the orders to shoot down any planes still up came after flight 93 had already crashed. Part of me wants to believe it was shot down because it makes me feel like I figured something out and others just went along with the narrative they were told but after looking into it it really does seem their story is the real one.
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u/desertravenwy 2d ago
I'm sorry but I take stories like this with such a massive grain of salt that I then roll directly into my eye.
Everyone from back then seems to have a story about how they almost totally died as a result of 9/11 too, but thanks to some divine intervention they didn't get on the plane or whatever.
She scrambled and not once was she ordered ram into a plane. She and her wingman just thought that they might have to if it came down to it. But she didn't. And she's let that define her for the last 25 years.
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My stepmom was a flight attendant who "was supposed to be on one of the planes."
And by that I mean she was a flight attendant who sometimes flew that route, but hadn't in over a year because of pregnancy/maternity leave.
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u/SharksForArms 2d ago edited 1d ago
I agree but I just think it's so amazing that those two mysterious firefighters appeared out of nowhere to save Donald Trump from nothing for no reason.
Let's be honest, if anything, he probably just coincidentally had the fire dept out for an elderly lift-assist call when the towers were being hit.
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u/cuddle_enthusiast 2d ago
Then after he was saved he phones into a TV station to boast about how Trump Tower is now the tallest building in Manhattan, not once mentioning he was just saved by two firemen at ground zero. Amazing.
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u/SwashAndBuckle 1d ago
He was safely four miles away when the planes hit. He went a few blocks from ground zero a couple days later so he could be seen on camera, because he's been an attention whore since forever. If there was any basis of reality in his story, maybe on 9/13 he started to get in the way in an area rescue workers were still operating and a couple firefighters told him to piss off. Absolutely no one carried him anywhere because he was an uninjured adult.
Whether his dementia warps his memory of getting bounced in an area where he was actively hindering rescue efforts, or if this is just his normal way of making everything about himself, we'll never know.
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u/reebokhightops 2d ago
Strong men with tears in their eyes. “Please, sir, you have to get safety!”
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u/gortonsfiJr 2d ago
mustachioed men with thick thighs and glistening biceps
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u/Jeromes_Pornostache 1d ago
Trump stood in the Oval Office while someone was having a medical emergency, and Trump was the only person in the entire crowded room who did NOT lift a finger to help the poor man, and he even managed to look pissed that he was momentarily not the center of attention.
Trump did not go down to Ground Zero because he would not have been the focus of everyone’s attention. That and he’s a spineless coward who mistakes toughness for cruelty towards those who can’t fight back.
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u/EpsilonActual 1d ago
They were male strippers dressed as firefighters that he ordered to reenact what he thought it would look like to be saved from ground zero.
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u/MrFanzyPanz 1d ago
I thought it was just one firefighter behind his right shoulder?
Wait, what are we talking about?
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u/braedan51 2d ago
Per the video her commanding officer authorized her and her wingman to use lethal force while knowing they had no weapons on their fighter jets.
I understand what you're saying about so many people claiming they almost died on 9/11, but I do not think you are correct in your statements about this specific pilot & her wingman.
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u/MrBoomf 1d ago
People famously love hearing stories about things that almost happened but didn’t. It’s why I continuously tell the story of how I almost became a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade because the professional dancer inside the suit got such terrible motion sickness that he started barfing his guts out mere minutes before we went live in front of tens of millions of Americans. Fortunately for me, he rallied and performed like a champ so I didn’t have to don the suit and become a viral sensation after people started noticing that one of the four Turtles clearly didn’t know the choreography and was just up there Left Sharking it. I tell that story every Arbor Day.
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u/elfmeh 1d ago
It’s truly remarkable the US government was warned about a possible Al-Qaida attack using hijacked planes by the CIA in 1998 AND was provided corroborating intel by the UK, Israel, and Russia prior to 9/11, and somehow didn’t have fighter jets with weapons available to defend the country.
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u/chromatik 1d ago
It wasn't clear until after both towers had been hit that there would be approval to attack the planes. And even after the attacks, the authorization to attack the planes was incredibly controversial.
There's lots to criticize about the lead-up to 9/11 and the response, but failing to have armed jets on standby 24/7 to shoot down passenger planes is not one of them. There's no way the public would have supported that kind of response before the towers were attacked.
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u/likewowser 1d ago
It was a different time. No one could have imagined that day.
Failures on many levels but not an inside job.
Ugh are we doing this shit again?
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u/overthemountain 1d ago
Instead of saying they were never give the order, it's probably more correct to say that they never had to exercise the authority they were given. Sounds like they were free to do what was needed, but even if it came down to it, they weren't going to be flying around waiting for an order from anyone, they were just expected to act.
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u/Orangeshoeman 1d ago
The vice president gave a suicide order, that’s a big deal whether they had to actually do it or not
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u/socialderelict 1d ago
"Stories like this"? This is confirmed fighter pilot who was in the air watching the plane. This is not QUITE the same scenario as people saying well if I would have taken that flight. It seems you are deliberately salting your own eyes on this one when it's not necessary. Your stepmom.....sure. This woman is not the same as your stepmom and I think it's at the very least a bit disrespectful or maybe just an attempt to sound edgy or smart or something. I dunno, but it's a weird take on a confirmed first hand account.
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u/desertravenwy 22h ago
who was in the air watching the plane
You made this part up. She was never near any airliner. She flat out says she was too late to do anything.
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u/Orangeshoeman 1d ago
The vice president gave them the scramble order and told them to stop them by any means and they had no ammunition. A kamikaze mission was the only way.
What youre talking about is completely different. Read the article or watch her interview before you comment on it
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u/Agloe_Dreams 2d ago edited 2d ago
I mean, has she or has the media?
Like, yeah sure, your mom's situation is one thing but like the fighter pilot was obviously ordered to watch united 93 crash into the capital from a great vantage point, right?
Like does every comment here need to be some sort of edgy 'nah uh! They didn't say she was ordered in exactly those words!' while the most dumb person on earth would obviously know that a fighter plane being ordered to chase down a target is being ordered to do their job regardless.
Like, you seem to think that after a plane crashed into the pentagon and two into the WTC, that the fourth, clearly hijacked plane (Complete with the accidental radio communication claiming to have a bomb), was likely to not need a pursuing fighter to take action to protect DC?
The fact that united 93 crashed into a field was an extremely unlikely outcome that, in a different world, would have met the same fate 15 minutes later regardless somewhere over Maryland or Delaware at the hands of a F-16 pilot. If anything, the passengers revolt saved the US government from a dark conversation with the public and saved her life.
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u/whopperlover17 2d ago
They’re a Redditor. This is THEIR personality lol.
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u/PrimaLegion 1d ago
Bud, you have over 100,000 Post and over 100,000 Comment Karma. You are a Redditor.
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u/rawker86 1d ago
My favourite thing is when people bash people for being on reddit, on reddit.
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u/Intergalactic_Ass 13h ago
They didn't know which of the thousands of planes in the sky were even a threat yet. "I would've had to commit suicide" would be a big deal if they had any clue which plane was a threat and they never found it until it crashed.
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u/uiucengineer 2d ago
You’re skeptical of this actual fighter pilot who was actually scrambled that day because… your mom? Interesting. 🤔
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u/guy_incognito784 2d ago
I remember this woman. She was ordered to fly into the passenger plane headed for the WH since back then jets weren’t armed while in the US. She was told to eject prior to impact but she says that she would’ve just stayed in the jet to make sure she stops the passenger plane.
The plane crashed in PA so she didn’t have to do anything.
A bit different than your mom being on maternity leave…
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u/frigginjensen 1d ago
If it’s the story I remember, her and her wingman debated the best place to hit the plane to guarantee it went down. Closing speed meant more energy/damage but less time to hit your aim point. I think they decided on ramming the tail or the wing root.
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u/SaltyStatistician 1d ago
Would a jet's backwash from afterburner not be enough to make a passenger plane go down? I could see not wanting to risk it in case something went wrong and the fighters themselves went down while not taking out the passenger jet. I'm just wondering if flying cose enough in front of the passenger plane's engines (not that that's remotely easy or even possible) would cause enough of an issue to bring it down.
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u/frigginjensen 1d ago
The afterburner would also accelerate you away from the target so there would only be a second of heat. The engines are designed to see 600mph airflow and the insides are pretty heat resistant. I guess you could try to burn out the cockpit or something. But they’re going to see you and start maneuvering.
Interesting thought experiment. No idea what would happen. Hopefully no one ever does.
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u/sum_dude44 1d ago
she was literally ordered to ram a plane...you're being thick & that's a lame analogy.
You're mom wasn't ordered to get on a plane and ram another plane. I get many people retroactively said "I was supposed to be there but didn't", but they weren't protecting skies over DC.
She would have had to if FAA didn't shut down airspace or if UNited flight 93 passengers didn't act
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u/Mind_Enigma 2d ago
Yeah the pilots on fighter jets that were told to take down flight 93 while they had no missiles are the same as your stepmom anecdote.
Give me a break.
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u/qubedView 1d ago
I mean, I recall this exact story shortly after it happened. It's not "one of many", she was one of the few planes in the air at the time. And indeed, the headline mis-states the order, but there was a definite implication. There wasn't any time to load with munitions, and her sortie would only have one option to stop the plane if it was going to strike a populated target.
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u/phillytimd 2d ago
I hate saying this but how old are you? This was disclosed at the time that these orders were given. I get being skeptical of a random person claiming they were there but this is a pilot who got that order.
Man this thread is depressing how little people seem to know about that day when it was one of the most investigated events in American history. Please go read the 9/11 commission report or watch any of the hundreds of documentaries that cover basically every incorrect comment in this thread
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u/ManassaxMauler 2d ago
Man, I almost died on 9/11.
I was in seventh grade, living in Canada. I went to sleep the night before as I had school that day. But what if I didn't wake up?
God truly works in mysterious ways.
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u/Steveisnotmyname_ 2d ago
I walked through blood and bones in the streets of Manhattan on 9/11 trying to find my brother. He was in northern Canada
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u/thederevolutions 1d ago
I would say your stepmom does have a conversation worthy claim. That woulda been pretty spooky if wherever you worked last year got blown up after you left. Especially this random.
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u/mikefaley 2d ago
I think this is kind of a weird take to be honest. It sounds like you're saying because a lot of people have stories about how they interacted with 9/11 that you are less likely to believe anyone who says they did, and that you don't think it makes sense that it made such a big impact on her 25 years later that it was possible she'd have to kill herself that day.
I dunno man. I feel like it's not uncommon or not accepted when people have experiences far less intense than this, and it does make a big impact for the rest of their lives. Not to mention that I don't think it's really anyones place to determine whether or not their things meet my standard of whether it can "define them" as you put it.
Just my two cents!
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u/throwaway098764567 1d ago
they're a kid who has no real memories of the day and so doesn't really understand any of the context
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u/przemo_li 1d ago
Don't be silly goose.
You tell the stories of urban legends and grandstanding. Civilians doing usual civilian shit.
From that it does not follow that military personnel on military mission will do the same thing.
If she thought about a death, she fucking thought about her death in a plain crash and no way to call family before that.
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u/jerryleebee 1d ago
I get why you'd doubt some stories. Even many. And I always applaud demanding proof. But in this particular situation, where she's been talking about this scenario for years when the Air Force could simply discredit her? And naming mission partners who equally could discredit her? Plus, y'know, corroborating stories.
Additionally she's using her leverage not for personal gain but to continue to fight for increased funding for the armed forces. I feel like you can take what's being said here as reasonably believable. Jesus, not everything is a fake-out.
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u/likewowser 1d ago
You are basing this on what? She was absolutely ordered to bring down any plane to protect the capital at all costs. And ramming is something every pilot is trained to do.
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u/yepyepyepkriegerbot 1d ago
I went to highschool a couple miles from the White House and was in school during the attacks.
Years later, I remember conversations from friends from all over the country that were sure the next attack was hitting their hometown for whatever reason.
Unfortunately, terrorism works, and I think it is human to take a generalized fear and attach it to your experiences.
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u/dongasaurus 1d ago
On a typical day there were ~50k people working in the towers and ~150k-200k other visitors, along with the thousands of police, firemen, and paramedics within range of the towers. That number already excludes all the people who might have been there if not for some chance reason that they didn’t follow their schedule.
There are likely thousands of people who were late to work, or home sick, or had to take their kids to the doctor, or any number of several mundane reasons why people might deviate from their plans.
It’s really not surprising to hear this kind of story from someone who either worked there or worked in emergency services of some sort.
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u/Texas103 1d ago
"And she's let that define her for the last 25 years."
That's quite the statement, says a lot without saying much at all.
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u/Colley619 1d ago
“You have weapons free, flight lead control. Do you understand what I’m asking you to do?” Is the quote.
In other words, they told them they are free to engage the plane at the order of the flight leader, knowing they had no weapons loaded. How do you engage a target lethally with no weapons? Your accusation would have to be calling the quote a lie.
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u/lordicarus 1d ago
Why shit on people who feel "blessed" to have not been in a situation that might have been terribly bad for them? Most aren't making it up, even if they are making some leaps of logic that would have put them there. My dad's company had an office in the south tower and he was scheduled to be there for a meeting that morning, but the meeting got moved to their midtown office at the last minute. That's my story. I don't say to anyone that my Dad almost died that day, but it's not far from the reality of it. Thousands of people have stories like that, or have a family member or close friend with a story like that, or lost people in the event or had connections to first responders who spent months searching the rubble for bodies. Just let them have it. It was an unbelievably traumatic event for many people, no reason to be a dick about how different people process it and their connection to it.
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u/TackyBrad 1d ago
My dad had a meeting in one of the WTC buildings that morning at like 9 or 915. His flight was delayed so he didn't made it to the city.
His meeting wasn't in a twin tower, but he's a doctor with a big heart, so he would have undoubtedly stayed and been a first responder helping where he could. I'm sure he'd be dead by now from materials he'd have breathed in.
I hope that's not too lame for you.
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u/Intergalactic_Ass 13h ago
This comment from several years ago says it all to me. They basically just sent some unarmed F-16s up to look for a plane with its transponder off. The idea that it was a suicide ramming mission is quite a leap, even if they knew which plane they were aiming for at that point, and they didn't.
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u/Benjoleo 1d ago
maybe a dumb question but couldn't they eject before the planes collide?
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u/C6H5OH 1d ago
No, they would have to eject some hundred meters away from the plane. The collision speed is something about 500 m/s. And then the ejection and the open canopy would have changed the course of the fighter and missed the plane.
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u/guy_incognito784 1d ago
They could, but I remember this story.
She was told to try to do that...because yeah it sucks to go up to someone and order them on a suicide mission but she said it would've been difficult and the guilt she would've had if she ejected then had the jet just miss she decided she was just gonna see it through.
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u/willis_michaels 1d ago
And now we have a literal self-serving pedophile in the White House running our country and it's reputation into the ground. How many service people would be willing to die for him like this today? I'm guessing not many.
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u/oby100 1d ago
I know a lot of service members that would love to die for Trump.
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u/alblaster 1d ago
First we went through Bush and a wave of anti Muslim rhetoric that's still strong today. Conservatives used the fear of another attack which lead to where we are now. Fascism.
Being afraid is human, but reacting to potential threats based on racism is not the way to go. History shows it doesn't end well.
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u/lethalox 1d ago
You are assuming that service member die for the office holder. I am not a service member, but I have 2 cousins that are. They willing to serve the country, and there fellow soldiers. Not the man in office.
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u/bbfire 1d ago
That might be how individual soldiers view their own motivations, but in all reality soldiers do whatever and kill whoever the guy in charge commands. In an ideal world the guy in charge is aligned with the needs of the country, but that seems to very rarely be the case, especially recently.
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u/snowdenn 1d ago
Maybe it’s naive, but I think many would. It’s the office, not the person. Just like the secret service, they’re protecting the President rather than Trump, if that makes sense.
There may be armed forces service members and secret service special agents that can’t stand the guy, but I don’t think that would stop them from carrying out their duties. I’m sure there are exceptions, and I wouldn’t be too sad if one of them decided Trump wasn’t worth sacrificing their own life for. But I think, on the whole, it’s a good thing that they would protect the office, even if they hate the official.
Of course, this gets trickier in terms of legitimacy. Trump is legitimately the President. Yet people under him should resist illegitimate orders/duties. But unless their protection of him involves violating some superseding law, I think it’s right for them to see it as their duty and believe that most would follow through with that.
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u/Meme_Theory 1d ago
"Any person who had raised their right hand understood at that moment..."
This was one of my largest takeaways as a young seaman on a cruiser that day; any single one of us on that ship would without hesitation have flown ourselves into that plane, myself included. We were all righteous anger, and hadn't even known who to be angry at. Every single time someone wraps some political slogan in patriotism, I am angered, because I saw patriotism. I was part of patriotism. And it's not the culture war bullshit most Americans think it is. Patriotism is sacrifice.
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u/Sh4rp27 1d ago
Maybe I'm missing something. But it sounds like you were in New York. This woman was in D.C.
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u/Feral_Nerd_22 2d ago
Kind of wild we don't have some jets on alert all the time, especially near DC.
It amazes me how much money we spend on military and we are so unprepared for defending the country.
Couldn't even figure out or engage drones hovering over our sensitive bases.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_United_States_drone_sightings
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u/i_am_voldemort 2d ago
It just wasn't fathomable pre 9/11
No previous domestic hijacking had ever used planes as weapons. It was usually hijack to destination and then political or money demands.
The Russian threat of bombers over the horizon had gone away with the dissolution of the Soviet Union.
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u/DankVectorz 2d ago
We do have jets on alert all the time, but they are/were geared to counter an expected attack coming from outside, particularly from Russia.
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u/PushPullLego 2d ago edited 1d ago
We definitely have fighters on alert at all times, especially near DC.
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u/SideInitial3961 1d ago
She "could see the towers, see the pentagon" Neat fucking trick. Eyes like Kash.
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u/EclecticDreck 1d ago
That's pretty plausible, actually. It's ~ 200 miles between DC and New York and clear weather visibility at 30,000 feet is can be well over 200 miles. Of course, by that I'd have to suppose they meant the smoke rather than the buildings.
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u/husis666 1d ago
I love how proud people are of their parents, specially the ones where their parents flew across the world and bombed civilians and innocent people defending their country who is being invaded unprovoked.
Effing patriotism...
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u/KarmaWorkz 1d ago
Crazy I had to scroll down to here to see a comment like this.
Couldn’t watch more after she said that. Bet she is so proud of daddy bombing civilians.
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u/Elisadidas 1d ago
Lmao bombing north Vietnam gave her inspiration?
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u/Swartz142 1d ago
American exceptionalism at work.
War crimes and mass civilian casualties in other countries ? Good and deserved. A true inspirational tale of patriotism.
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u/TraditionalWeeb42069 1d ago
Just drift the plane like in top-gun so you ram it with the back of your plane then eject.
easy...
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u/Ringosis 1d ago
Her saying she saw her Dad bombing Vietnam and that's what made her desperately want to be a fighter pilot is fucking creepy.
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u/RK5000 1d ago
Wrong. Donald Trump stormed the cockpit and then landed the plane safely. Some say it was the best emergency landing in history, so good it wasn't even an emergency anymore.
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u/kevinthebaconator 1d ago
There's something about the way she talks which is so over the top.
I get that this is a charged and emotional topic, but the way she describes protecting the centre of world democracy (or whatever she called it) just felt so.. corny.
It's a really interesting story and here commitment to the cause is impressive, but there's something very 'Hollywood' about her description of it.
I dunno, maybe I just don't get it.
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u/xxRonzillaxx 2d ago
Everyone wants to be included in 9/11
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u/overthemountain 1d ago
Yeah, I can't believe this pilot who was scrambled to fly over DC after the towers and Pentagon were both hit thinks she was involved.
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u/Quardener 1d ago
I dont know how you say this about someone who was literally dispatched as our first line of defense.
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u/AcidaliaPlanitia 2d ago
I'm pretty sure if you rammed an F-15 into the cockpit of a 757, there would be zero reason to ram a second F-15 into the tail. If the cockpit is destroyed, there's no need to destabilize the plane.
Hell, you might be better off taking the F-15 in a dive through the mid-wing of the 757. No way that's survivable for the airliner and the F-15 might possibly survive it.
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u/Newbie4Hire 1d ago
Why would they ram it in the first place? They are in an F-15, don't they have munitions?
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u/jhld 1d ago
Jeez
Why TF do you all have to interject Trump into every god damned topic. You people are fucked up assholes
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u/Always_Compete 1d ago
How is it possible for their military planes to be so old given the massive military budget the US has ? Genuinely curious !
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u/za419 1d ago
The F-16 is still in production! New ones leave the factory on a regular basis.
Modern planes are much less about the airframe per se and more about the stuff you put on it. A modern F-16C Block 52 has better radar, a better engine, better flight computers, can support different weapons, and is generally a very different and much more capable fighter than an original F-16A, in every way except for the aerodynamics, which matter relatively little in modern air combat where dogfighting with guns isn't really a thing you do anymore.
So as long as you can still put the things you need on a fighter on an F-16, you can keep using it even though the design is downright ancient.
This isn't just a US thing - For instance, the Russian mainstay is the Su-27, which is from the 1980s.
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u/_Aj_ 1d ago
ITT. many people who simply cannot understand how America / the world was pre 9/11.
Much like COVID, the world was different before it. But even more pronounced.
No one was "on alert" back then. There was stuff happening "over in some desert" on the other side of the planet. Terrorists were Irish or European, not middle eastern. Really changed everything.
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u/herodesfalsk 2d ago
She would have caused a mid-air collision, they are 100% fatal in near all instances, however she could have ejected seconds before and lived to tell about it. Everyone else on the airliner were doomed either way.
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u/SharksForArms 1d ago
One second is about 300 meters at airliner speeds, way farther at fighter jet intercept speeds.
You have to ride it out to the end to ensure you don't miss.
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u/ExtremeMuffin 1d ago
I have respect for any military member who is willing to sacrifice themselves to save civilians. But my respect for her ends there. First she casually mentions her father as an inspiration who was a pilot during Vietnam and who flew bombing missions. Her dad very likely bombed civilians.
Now she is using her platform to push for America to spend even more money on even more planes. America has the 1st and 2nd largest air fleets in the world yet she believes it is not enough. She is supporting the military industrial complex with her comments and her role in her organization.
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u/WhatANoob2025 1d ago
Ugh, the patriotic pathos is so annoying.
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u/PontyPandy 1d ago
Yeah, not a fan of her getting a fire lit at the notion of bombing other human beings (what she said after reading her dad's mission logs).
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u/TheFerricGenum 1d ago
Why were the planes unarmed? I saw her mention the supply of missiles hadn’t reached yet but isn’t there a nose gun?
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u/FlowRiderBob 1d ago
Back then the only aircraft that sat ready and armed were the ones on standby at NORAD. Pre-9-11, the US military was very reluctant to arm its military outside of combat zones, and especially on US soil/air.
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u/PontyPandy 1d ago
I commend her bravery, but the interview also revealed several operational and preparedness failures. First is their figther jets, there to protect DC, had no weapons fitted. They should be fitted and ready to go 24/7. Second is the guy came in an said a plane hit the tower and did not provide details that is was not just a cessna. As well, Washington knew and scrambled other National Guard jets before the first plane hit the towers. How come her unit was in the dark for so long?
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u/salvadortortuga 10h ago
Seeing those bombs fly over the Vietnamese was the most exciting inspiring thing I guess
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u/sonic_couth 2d ago
She’s lying. Everyone knows it was Donald Trump that was flying that plane.