Ten years ago, one of the Air Force’s first female fighter pilots nearly made the ultimate sacrifice for her country.
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.
Penney, who was one of the first women to enlist in 1992 after Congress lifted a longtime ban on female combat pilots, planned to strike the tail of Flight 93, while Sasseville aimed to hit the plane’s cockpit.
Surviving the mission was unlikely: If they ejected from the jets, both pilots risked missing their target.
“I was hoping to do both at the same time,” Sasseville said. “It probably wasn’t going to work, but that’s what I was hoping.”
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.
“The real heroes are the passengers on Flight 93 who were willing to sacrifice themselves,” Penney said. “I was just an accidental witness to history.”
Katie.Drummond@thedaily.com
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Photo: National Guard