On the morning of September 11, 2001 Lt. Heather "Lucky" Penney was on a runway in Nevada.
She had her hand on the throttle of an F-16 and was ready to take off. Her orders: flight United 93 knockdown. The fourth plane was hijacked that day, seemed on his way to his to Washington. Penney got together with another pilot the order to stop it.
The only thing that Penney did not, was ammunition or missiles. Only its own plane, and that was also the plan. The hijackings and attacks went too fast to arm the fighters, so Penney and its commander would have their planes right in the Boeing 757 drilling. ,, We would not bring down, we would ram the plane, "said the pilot at The Washington Post . ,, I would actually be a kamikaze pilot."
Penney declined decade interviews about her experiences that day, until her story is told again this weekend in 2011, 15 years after the attacks.
freshman
, We had to protect the airspace in any possible way, "says Penney, which is now a major in the US Air Force. She's not a fighter pilot, but did two missions in Iraq and worked as a pilot for the National Guard. Now, she is the director of an F-35-program.
In the fall of 2001, she was a rookie, the first female F-16 pilot ever in the 121st Fighter Squadron of the National Air Force. She had grown up with the smell of kerosene, her father flew fighter planes in Vietnam.
Penney wanted to be a teacher, but while she was in college, the US Congress decided that women could now also be fighter pilot. ,, I signed up right away, "she says. ,, I wanted to be a fighter pilot like my father."
Confusion
On that Tuesday they had just two weeks of combat training in Nevada behind. They sat around a briefing table when someone came to report that a plane had hit the World Trade Center in New York. The first time she still thought that it was crazy. The second plane they had with it was a declaration of war.
The first hours there was only confusion. There were no clear orders inside and nothing was ready. The planes were loaded with sham bullets from training.
Then hit a third plane the Pentagon and almost at the same time the message came that a fourth plane was on its way. It would take an hour to arm the planes, but then had to immediately leave someone, weapons or not.
Rather die than fail
,, Lucky, you're coming with me, "Colonel Marc Sasseville shouted to Penney. ,, I'm aiming for the cockpit," the Colonel told her. ,, I'll take the tail, "Penney replied without hesitation.
Both aircraft departed with 640 kilometers per hour and searched the horizon. ,, We do not train to shoot down airliners, "said Sasseville. ,, If you just hit the engine, it can still fly further and you can guide it to a target. My idea was the cockpit or the wing."
The man also hoped that shortly before the impact would still be able to activate his ejection seat. Penny was afraid that her plane in that case, United would miss 93. Fail in her mission seemed to her worse than dying.
Passengers of United 93
But ultimately Penney did take down any airliner full of civilians. Did the passengers themselves. Penney and Sasseville got underway told that United 93 had already crashed in Pennsylvania: the hostages had managed to overpower the hijackers.
,, The real heroes are the passengers of Flight 93 who wanted to sacrifice themselves, "said Penney. ,, I was just an accidental witness to history."
She and Sasseville flew the rest of the day they made it pretty airspace and escorted include Air Force One, the private jet of the American president. ,, I really thought it was the last time I took off. ''
By editorial AD Photo: Thinkstock
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