By now, most of you know that the September 11 hijackers had commandeered a fourth plane and turned it toward Washington, D. C. That plane brought down just outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania after the passengers attacked the cockpit. What most of you don’t know is that had that revolt not taken place, a female pilot was ready to ram her F-16 into the plane to bring it down.
On the morning of September 11, 2001; several members of the D. C. Air National Guard’s 121st Fighter Squadron were sitting around a briefing table at Andrews Air Force Base when word got out that a plane had just slammed into One World Trade Center. At first, they thought it was an accident. But when they learned a second plane hit Two World Trade Center, they immediately realized the nation was under attack.
However, Col. George Degnon, vice commander of the 113th Wing based at Andrews, recalled that everyone was caught by surprise because “there was no perceived threat at the time.” All of the available planes were still outfitted with dummy bullets from a training mission. Contrast that with today, when at least two F-16 jets stand armed and ready to scramble from Andrews at a moment’s notice.
It would take an hour to arm the planes and get them in the air. But word got out that a plane had just hit the Pentagon and at least one more was on the way–possibly headed for either the White House or the Capitol. Col. Marc Sasseville realized they didn’t have an hour to get the planes ready to fly. He collared Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney and told her to get ready to fly out and watch the skies over the capital–and if needed, intercept any hostile aircraft.
Penney told her story to The Washington Post in 2011; The Post ran this story on its Facebook page on Friday morning to commemorate the 14th anniversary of the attacks. She was the first woman ever to fly an F-16 with the 121st. But as she was getting into her flight suit, she realized that her first combat mission might very well be her last. As they were getting ready, Sasseville told Penney, “I’m going to go for the cockpit.” Penney replied, almost unthinkingly, “I’ll take the tail.”
Years later, Penney, now a major and a director with Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program, told The Washington Post she knew almost instinctively that she “would essentially be a kamikaze pilot.” There was so much urgency to “protect the airspace any way we could” that she didn’t even have time to go through the pre-flight checklist.
Penney spoke with C-SPAN in 2011 about what happened next. Watch here.
Penney said that if she intercepted a large passenger jet over the capital, she would have rammed her plane into the tail–thus making it all but impossible for a hijacker to control the plane. While she wondered if she would have time to eject, she also knew that she would only get one shot to take it out. Thus, she knew that in all likelihood, this would indeed be a kamikaze mission.
Fortunately, Penney and Sasseville didn’t have to die. They spent most of the day patrolling the skies over the capital, and escorted Air Force One through what was now the most restricted airspace in the world. It would be hours before they learned that United Airlines Flight 93 was the intended fourth plane–and it crashed a mere 20 minutes’ flying time from the capital after the passengers stormed the cockpit.
Later, when Penney checked in with her family, she learned that had she been forced to use her F-16 as a battering ram, she might have brought down her father, John. Years later, John Penney said that while they talked about that possibility, they never got emotional about it because “she’s a fighter pilot, I’m a fighter pilot.”
Penney went on to fly for two tours in Iraq. She’s never lost her love for the skies; she still flies part time chauffeuring VIPs for the D. C. Air National Guard. However, she still thinks about what she believed would be her very last flight. So do we, Lucky. We salute you.
