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America almost sent its own “kamikaze pilot” after United Air Flight 93 on the morning of 9/11. Maj. Heather “Lucky” Penney, then a rookie lieutenant, was rushed into the cockpit of an F-16 the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Her orders were to take down United Air Flight 93, using her own jet. “We wouldn’t be shooting it down. We’d be ramming the aircraft,” Penney told the Washington Post, speaking publicly for the first time about that fateful morning. “I would essentially be a kamikaze pilot.” The unexpected terrorist hijackings left those at Andrews Air Force Base scrambling. Without an armed fighter jet ready to fly, Air Force leaders sent Penney — along with Col. Mark Sasseville — on a one-way mission… Surviving the mission was unlikely: If they ejected from the jets, both pilots risked missing their target…  Of course, Penney and Sasseville were spared: A collective of civilian hostages aboard the flight had wrestled control from their captors, and the plane flew into a Pennsylvania field rather than a populated target.

America almost sent its own “kamikaze pilot” after United Air Flight 93 on the morning of 9/11.

Maj. Heather “Lucky” Penney, then a rookie lieutenant, was rushed into the cockpit of an F-16 the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. Her orders were to take down United Air Flight 93, using her own jet.

“We wouldn’t be shooting it down. We’d be ramming the aircraft,” Penney told the Washington Post, speaking publicly for the first time about that fateful morning. “I would essentially be a kamikaze pilot.”

The unexpected terrorist hijackings left those at Andrews Air Force Base scrambling. Without an armed fighter jet ready to fly, Air Force leaders sent Penney — along with Col. Mark Sasseville — on a one-way mission… Surviving the mission was unlikely: If they ejected from the jets, both pilots risked missing their target…

 Of course, Penney and Sasseville were spared: A collective of civilian hostages aboard the flight had wrestled control from their captors, and the plane flew into a Pennsylvania field rather than a populated target.


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