General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon

Now, there's another part of the history of this flight that people often don't mention.

And those were the two F-16 pilots who were scrambling for a way to intercept the Flight 93.

Can you share a little bit about that?

Sure.

So these were two Air National Guard F-16 fighter pilots, Mark Sassville and Heather Penny.

And on the morning of 9-11, they were ordered to take off from their base in Maryland.

And their task was to intercept Flight 93 and, if necessary, take it down.

We ended up, you know, talking our way through things, um, and, and, and pushing on.

Um, I, I will say that the, the f- the later on F-16s came from Andrews Air Force Base, and when we got intercepted by the F-16, it was a little more exciting 'cause they came down our right side and did a really cool break right in front of our nose, kinda cool air show, you know, vapor trail streaming off the wings and everything, shot off flares, and it was, uh, they looked pretty serious.

We slowed down.

Uh, we had the same conversation, talked our way through it, everything was cool, and we, we kept on pressing.

Um, so it was a big lift package that went over there.

They get staged, um, and, um, President arrives, um, I think it was eighteen thirty-ish, and right after that's on Marine One, and, uh, they push over, and the lift goes over to the White House, to the South Lawn.

Um, two Air Force F-16s were added to the lift package as escorts, if you will.

Um, and I know that the route they took, took them kind of right down, right over the Capitol.

United Airlines had planned a flyover for a September 11th memorial in Denver.

The aircraft, a Boeing 777, the escort F-16 fighter jets.

The intent to honor the victims, the first responders, and the crew members lost that day.

They canceled it.

I'd be surprised if it was.

Now let's talk about the flyover itself.

A Boeing 777 with F-16 escorts is not a quiet event.

A 777 at low altitude produces a sound signature you feel before you hear, and F-16s, depending on configuration and power setting, can rattle windows from several miles out.

After editorials, we'll read the TV listings, sports, and announcements.

The headlines from the front page of the Friday, September 11th Journal-Gazette are F-16 flyovers to commemorate 9-11 Permit to fill wetlands gets okay Summit shows rocky road to success And state justices hear Sacks' case to acquire land.

Now here's the first article.

F-16 flyovers to commemorate 9-11.

Guard plans flights over 10 area high school football games.

By Ashley Sloboda of the Journal-Gazette.

Ten Northeast Indiana high school football games will feature a pregame F-16 flyover honoring the 25th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks the Indiana National Guard announced Thursday.

The flyovers, which will involve four fighter jets, will be conducted within a three-minute window about 7 p.m. today, a news release said.

Second, you need to have different systems of counter drones to be able to act in different situations.

You cannot put all the weight of the mission on F-16 or Spanish planes or another type of air force capability.

And yes, you need to delegate the decision to open fire to the lowest level because the time to react when a drone enters into your airspace, the time is very short.

But this is not what worries me because I think in military terms, we will gradually become better and better with better capabilities and we can solve the problem militarily.

And so they made the arrangements to get him there.

They had the F-16.

He had an escort in the sky the whole way, which was crazy to see that video.

But he said, you know, when he heard the first one was an accident, the second one was an attack, the third one meant war is what his words were in that documentary.

A United Boeing 777 will depart.

was planning, rather, they were planning to have this aircraft depart Denver International Airport at 8.15 in the morning.

Behind it, there would be four F-16s from the 120th Fighter Squadron of the Colorado Air National Guard in formation.

The group would then fly over United's Flight Training Center, which is about 13 miles from the airport.

Arriving overhead at 9.03 a.m., everyone would be back on the ground by 9.30. Now, the timing is not incidental.

Denver's Office of Emergency Management saw the problem immediately.

Spokesperson for Mayor Mike Johnston said the city was informed about the flyover, not consulted.

United never addressed how close the F-16s would come to downtown high rises and the mayor's office.

So I put myself on that mission that night.

And so by that time we took off, as far as I knew, and people can check the details on this, I think pretty much everything, certainly in the capital region, if not the Mid-Atlantic, if not the whole country had been grounded other than the AWACS, I believe the F-16 fighter jets and us.

There might've been a few other, something that popped up somewhere, but I wasn't aware of it.

So we took off that night and we were immediate contact with the AWAC who told us to stay below a certain altitude As we now know, the fighter pilots were under orders to shoot down any aircraft that they couldn't communicate with for fear that more attacks were coming.