On the morning of Sept.11, 2001, two Air National Guard pilots faced an unimaginable, unarmed mission: intercept a hijacked airliner headed for Washington D.C., prepared to sacrifice their own lives.



As Americans watched their televisions in shock and horror on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, two heroic pilots scrambled to their F-16s to prevent even more devastation— prepared to sacrifice their own lives if necessary.

The remarkable story was well known at the time but is receiving renewed attention this year on the 25th anniversary of 9/11, as one of those pilots, Heather “Lucky” Penney, reflects on that day and the life-or-death decision she faced.

Penney and Lt. Col. Marc Sasseville were serving with the District of Columbia Air National Guard on 9/11 when they were scrambled into the skies to protect the nation’s capital. Two airplanes had already crashed into the World Trade Center, and a third had hit the Pentagon.

A fourth plane— Flight 93 — also had been hijacked, and political and military leaders believed it was headed for D.C., targeting either the White House or Congress.

Up until then, though, the day had been picture-perfect — the kind of morning that could have been lifted from a postcard.

“The sky was so blue — it was crystal blue, and it was a perfect flying day,” Penney told PBS NewsHour.

But her peaceful morning changed when she and Sasseville were ordered into the air. They had one goal: prevent the fourth airplane from reaching D.C.

Incredibly, though, their F-16s were unarmed. There simply was no time to wait for missiles to arrive and arm the jets.

“We had the authorization to use lethal force,” Penney said. “The problem was [Sasseville] and I didn't have weapons. Missiles had not gotten to the flight line yet. We would have had to ram our jets into what we then knew was the target — an airliner.”

That airliner, of course, was a civilian plane, filled with 33 innocent passengers and seven crew members who were under the control of four hijackers.

Penney said she would not have hesitated to ram the airliner, even knowing that doing so would have cost her life and those of the innocent people who were aboard.

"It was my job," she said. "And if God had put me in that place at that moment, then that was my purpose."

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