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I've searched this forum with several search terms to find if the following link-interview has been previously posted- nada
The following interview on CSPAN has been available for several years- ( since Aiugust 2011 ) and it takes about an hour.
ON 911 Heather Penney was a 2nd lt in the Air national Guard- She was a Major when the interview was made. She was one of the first to be airborne over Wash DC.
Not interested in Conspiracy or political issues at all - perhaps others who were directly involved may wish to post or find any similar interviews.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?300959-1/major-heather-penney-september-11-2001
Major Heather Penney on September 11, 2001 Major Heather Penney talked about her actions on September 11, 2001. Then a lieutenant, she was one of the first District of Columbia Air National Guard F-16 pilots scrambled from Andrews Air Force Base after the terrorist attacks. She described how she would have downed a civilian plane if necessary and why that would have been a suicide mission.
vapilot2004
3rd Sep 2016, 03:48
The tale of two suicide missions, one to terrorize and kill innocents in the name of religious radicalism, the other, to sacrifice one's life for not only the 3,000 innocents on the ground but ultimately in the name of religious freedom, democracy, and solidarity against extremism.
Airbubba
3rd Sep 2016, 04:15
ON 911 Heather Penney was a 2nd lt in the Air national Guard- She was a Major when the interview was made. She was one of the first to be airborne over Wash DC.
Not interested in Conspiracy or political issues at all - perhaps others who were directly involved may wish to post or find any similar interviews.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?300959-1/major-heather-penney-september-11-2001
More on Heather Penney in this article:
9/11 anniversary: Heather Penney's would-be 'suicide' mission to take down United 93 | Daily Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2035704/9-11-anniversary-Heather-Penneys-suicide-mission-United-93.html)
She is what is known in the Guard as a 'poster child'. ;) She has been prominently featured in the media in an attempt to counter less favorable DC Guard publicity like this article:
F-16 ATTACKS N.J. PILOT SHOOTS UP SCHOOL IN TRAINING BLUNDER WHILE THE KIDS ARE AWAY | New York Post (http://nypost.com/2004/11/05/f-16-attacks-n-j-pilot-shoots-up-school-in-training-blunder-while-the-kids-are-away/)
Major (now Brigadier General) Sammy 'Pitch' Black of the Alabama Air National Guard was lead plane in a two ship F-16 flight that was doing a couple of low passes at an airshow in Peachtree City, Georgia, an area infested with golf carts and Delta pilots. When word of the 911 attacks came, they returned to Montgomery, loaded armament and got airborne in perhaps the only Combat Air Patrol over the Southeastern U.S. that day.
The E-4B USAF 747's from Offutt AFB had an exercise in progress with most of the planes already airborne when the attacks occurred. Sightings of these planes flying after others had been ordered to land have fueled conspiracy theories for years now.
A check of CSPAN for this coming weekend shows many interviews on 911 events
Including the link I posted a week ago about Heather Penney
And as I recall- an article in Aviation week a month later also remarked that for a while later the area around DC was authorized to be ' weapons free ' if attempts were made to ignore interceptors.
We can only hope there will not be a terrorist act again on an anniversary important to the same group.
Nah, the enemy just came up with a new tactic...
Every now and again the bad guys get lucky - 9/11 was one of those days :(
Miltary failure ? No.
Intelligence failure ? Oh yeah !!!
I call it a failure if your job is to protect America and you let 3 airplanes crash into buildings and a 4th lucky the passengers over-came the hijackers. How much money is spent having the military train endlessly and guard the air space, and for what? That was a failure plain and simple. If I pay guards to guard my house and 3 burglars break in, some heads will roll and blame will be assigned. Before the endless occupations the military had a single job, protect the country from attack. It failed.
I think that you will find that the military planning to 'protect the airspace' was to protect from intrusion into the ADIZ from outside, not from aircraft within the CONUS. Unlike Europe where most countries can and do scramble fully armed interceptors for intruders from standby, the US on 9/11 had no such capability. Not only that it was scrambling to intercept an internal threat which had not been planned for. Then of course there are the problems of possibly having to shoot down an unarmed airliner. Remember, until 9/11 airliners were hijacked to land somewhere and initiate a hostage 'situation'.
In short, the procedures on an aircraft being hijacked both in the cockpit and on the ground were not suitable for dealing with hijackers who not only did not mind dying but intended to. Some of the security procedures in place even now would not work to prevent terrorists achieving their aim.
mary meagher
9th Sep 2016, 19:06
Most of the hijackers took flight training at various places in the US.
Wasn't there one who told his flight school that he didn't need to practice landings....
Airbubba
9th Sep 2016, 19:31
Most of the hijackers took flight training at various places in the US.
Wasn't there one who told his flight school that he didn't need to practice landings....
Here's the FBI list of the hijackers, in the modern era it is impolitic to make obvious observations about possible commonalities in their backgrounds:
https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/news/pressrel/press-releases/fbi-announces-list-of-19-hijackers
This online article purports to give insight to the flight training received by the 'alleged' perps:
Complete 911 Timeline: Flight Training Undergone by Alleged 9/11 Hijackers (http://www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?the_alleged_9/11_hijackers=complete_911_timeline_alleged_hijackers__flight _training&timeline=complete_911_timeline)
At some point after the attacks, admission to the simulator was tightened by the feds. A colleague who had flown internationally all year in command of a widebody was refused admission to her annual training because she was a green card holder and some required background check form had not been submitted.
Posting here on PPRuNe R&N about the 9-11 attacks ought to be focused on the harm it did to the industry, the good and hard working people in the industry -- pilots, CC, engineers, etc -- and the people who travel by air. Perhaps we can recognize whatever good may be had, or demonstrated, by the best efforts some made on that tragic day and since. The short term aftermath hurt the industry.
Trolling is not welcome.
Conspiracy Theories are not welcome.
Generally behaving badly is not welcome.
Good people doing their jobs to take people from here to there died, as did perfectly decnt people who were simply going about their lives.
If you are moved to post, but cannot keep it civil and show some respect for colleagues, true sisters and brothers in the spirit of flying, then show please the courtesy to this community by taking your rubbish somewhere else.
piratepete
10th Sep 2016, 01:10
I am not American or ex-military, but I have been an airline pilot since 1975 and still am very active in flying.Apart from the very sad loss of life and treasure on September 11th (I dont like the term "911" it really belongs to a German car), this event has put up a wall between us and our passengers which saddens me.Another problem has emerged in the fact that this wall now allows a suicidal pilot to kill us without any way of stopping it as it presently stands.An answer has to be found to this problem too.I have an idea but wont reveal it here, I think you can guess why, Peter.
mary meagher
10th Sep 2016, 09:17
Airbubba, post number 9 on this thread, gives reference to "Complete 911 Timeline: Flight Training Undergone by alleged 9/11 hijackers." This very comprehensive listing of the warning flags sent up by their behaviour should be read by any concerned occupants of flight decks...or any supposedly reputable flying schools. It shows the FBI as unable to take any effective action despite warnings. It demonstrates why there is ever since 9/11 a locked door between you and your passengers....
Airbubba
10th Sep 2016, 15:50
It demonstrates why there is ever since 9/11 a locked door between you and your passengers....
Actually, the flight deck door on U.S. airliners has been locked since a round of hijackings to Cuba in the 1970's. But, you are right in that the hardened door which is almost universal these days came in the aftermath of the 911 attacks.
As this pre-911 article points out, many overseas carriers had no such policy:
Paradoxically, some international carriers allow the cockpit door to remain unlocked during a flight. Any passenger can walk right in, even those who might mistake the cockpit for the lavatory. U.S. airlines adopt a quite different policy, however. They require that the cockpit door remain locked at all times during flight, except, of course, while crew members are entering and exiting. In this respect, pilots and flight attendants carry cockpit keys as standard equipment.
Cockpit assault - Salon.com (http://www.salon.com/2000/04/08/cockpits/)
The locked cockpit door was still a novel idea at BA in Y2K in the wake of a serious cockpit intrusion on arrival to NBO:
An unlocked door is all that stood between the British Airways flight crew and the crazed passenger who stormed into the cockpit and tried to seize the controls.
Former BA pilot Eric Moody told BBC News Online that although most American airlines keep cockpit doors locked for security reasons, this is not BA's policy.
"BA can see no reason to keep their flight doors locked," he said.
BBC News | UK | Security in the skies (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/1092286.stm)
And the pre-Y2K story of an Air Zim captain using a fire axe to attempt to gain entry is possibly an urban legend that eerily presages the Germanwings crash:
It slowly dawned on me that our pilot was locked out of the cockpit. Cockpit doors lock automatically from the inside to prevent terrorists from entering. Without a copilot, there was no one to open the door from the inside. By now, the rest of the passengers had become aware of the problem, and we watched the pilot, horrified. What would he do?
After a moment of contemplation, the pilot hurried to the back of the plane. He returned holding a big axe. Without ceremony, he proceeded to chop down the cockpit door. We were rooted to our seats as we watched him.
Fire Axe Emergency Cockpit Entry : snopes.com (http://www.snopes.com/travel/airline/fireaxe.asp)
Another version of the locked cockpit door and the fire axe story had a non-union U.S. airline crew as the players:
The story of a crew trapped by a locked cockpit door has been a possible urban legend in the States for years. One version has both pilots of a People Express 737 locked out of the cockpit in flight after trying to troubleshoot a balky door latch solenoid. They supposedly use a crash ax to break back in. Of course, the crash ax is inside the cockpit so this version has its challenges.. .. .As I have pointed out in the past, regulatory changes have a way of filtering across the Atlantic. Another example of this trend is drug and alcohol testing for pilots which has been required for years in the U.S. but is still quite novel in Europe.
http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/2066-who-let-door-shut-who-who-who-who.html#post24328
CONSO
11th Sep 2016, 14:16
please no political or conspiracy issues today
ON 911 Heather Penney was a 2nd lt in the Air national Guard- She was a Major when the interview was made. She was one of the first to be airborne over Wash DC.
This takes about an hour
https://www.c-span.org/video/?300959...tember-11-2001 (https://www.c-span.org/video/?300959-1/major-heather-penney-september-11-2001)
Quote:
Major Heather Penney on September 11, 2001 Major Heather Penney talked about her actions on September 11, 2001. Then a lieutenant, she was one of the first District of Columbia Air National Guard F-16 pilots scrambled from Andrews Air Force Base after the terrorist attacks. She described how she would have downed a civilian plane if necessary and why that would have been a suicide mission.
And tnen there was Flight 98 - Shanksville PA
Airbubba
11th Sep 2016, 18:52
PPRuNe 15 years ago:
http://www.pprune.org/rumours-news/107-737-crashes-into-world-trade-centre.html
The video with Major Penney gave me goosebumps. Especially the moment when she explained the feelings of servicemen evacuating children and two F-16s were roaring at 3.000 feet going with full afterburners over the smoking Pentagon. :D
For me that was the strongest part of her story.