9/11 Attacks: Former Fighter Pilot Heather Penney Recalls Suicide Mission To Protect Washington

(MENAFN- Live Mint) The September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks plunged the US into fear and uncertainty, but they also produced extraordinary acts of courage. Among them was the story of Heather Penney, a young F-16 pilot who was prepared to sacrifice her life to defend Washington, D.C.

Penney was 26 years old and serving as a first lieutenant with the D.C. Air National Guard when the attacks unfolded. After watching the hijacked planes crash into the World Trade Center, she and other airmen realised Washington could be the next target.

“We knew the world had changed and we knew we needed to get airborne,” Penney recalled, ABC7 News reported.

But the fighter pilots had to wait for orders before launching. By the time the Pentagon was struck, Penney said frustration was growing among those who knew they needed to protect the capital.

“It was shortly after the Pentagon was hit that we finally got a call from the Secret Service telling us to get airborne,” she said.

Penney and Sasseville had no missiles

Penney and her flight lead, then-Colonel Marc Sasseville, scrambled to their F-16s. However, the jets were not armed with missiles.

Penney said the lack of ready aircraft was partly a consequence of changes made after the end of the Cold War, when many US alert units had been shut down.

Their mission was to search for an airliner that could potentially be heading toward Washington at low altitude.

“We would do what was necessary to protect and defend,” Penney said.

Pilots prepared for a suicide mission

With no missiles available, Penney and Sasseville devised a desperate plan: they would use their fighter jets to intercept and destroy a hijacked aircraft by crashing into it.

“[Sasseville] would ram his jet into the nose of the aircraft, and I would ram mine into the tail,” Penney recalled.

At the time, the pilots did not know the details of United Flight 93 or what had happened to the passengers aboard the plane.

“Had [Sasseville] and I been successful, it would have been a suicide mission. And you're willing to do it,” Penney said.

Flight 93 had already crashed

Penney remained airborne for roughly three hours but did not know the flight number or the fate of United 93.

Only after landing did she learn that the aircraft had crashed in Pennsylvania before she and Sasseville were ordered into the air.

“By the time [Sasseville] and I were given the order to launch, we would have been too late,” she said.“Flight 93 crashed maybe half an hour, 20 minutes before we launched.”

The passengers of Flight 93 had fought back against the hijackers, ultimately preventing the aircraft from reaching its intended target.

Penney remembers the heroes of 9/11

One of the pilots who later flew to assist Penney over Washington was Dan Caine, who went on to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Later that day, Penney and her flight lead escorted Air Force aircraft back into Washington as President George W. Bush prepared to address the nation.

Now retired from the Air Force as a major, Penney says the true heroes of September 11 were the passengers who fought back aboard Flight 93.

“What [Sasseville] and I were willing to do is what the passengers on Flight 93 actually did,” she said.

'Remember the best of who we can be'

Twenty-five years after the attacks, Penney said Americans should remember not only the tragedy but also the unity and courage that emerged in its aftermath.

“It's also to remember how we came together as a nation,” she said, urging Americans to remember“the best of who we can be” and carry that legacy forward in honour of those killed on 9/11.

ABC7 News reported on Penney's recollections as the US approaches the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

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