Fighter pilot was willing to go on suicide mission to stop United 93 from striking DC

WASHINGTON (7News) — The September 11th attacks unleashed fear and terror across the country, but they also inspired incredible bravery, like the former fighter pilot sent on a potential suicide mission to protect Washington, D.C.

On that morning, then 26-year-old Heather Penney was working in the office when she realized America was under attack.

“The world had changed and we knew we needed to get airborne”

Penney is now a retired Air Force Major. But in 2001, she was a First Lieutenant and an F-16 fighter pilot for the D.C. Air National Guard.

RELATED | New exhibit at Army Museum showcases Corps of Engineers’ 9/11 response

After watching airplanes hijacked by a group of Islamic terrorists strike the twin towers killing thousands of innocent people, she and her fellow airmen knew they had to protect D.C., since it was clearly a prime target. But they needed to wait for orders from the president, and that took some time.

“It was shortly after the Pentagon was hit that we finally got a call from the Secret Service telling us to get airborne,” she said. “I cannot begin to describe how angry and frustrated I think we probably all felt because we knew we needed to protect.”

Penney says in the years since the fall of the Soviet Union, most of America’s alert units were shut down. So there weren’t jets on the ready with weapons loaded.

Penney had no time to lose. She and her flight lead, then-Colonel Marc Sasseville, scrambled to their F-16s.

“When we took off we needed to go search for an airliner that was likely coming low over the Potomac and that we would do what was necessary to protect and defend,” she recalled.

By any means necessary. So they made a plan.

“We did not have missiles,” she said. “[Sasseville] would ram his jet into the nose of the aircraft, and I would ram mine into the tail.”

SEE ALSO | 25 years later: The past, present, and future of the 9/11 Pentagon Memorial

In the fog of war, they initially heard three aircraft were unaccounted for.

“Had [Sasseville] and I been successful, it would have been a suicide mission. And you’re willing to do it.”

There are lots of high value targets that terrorists could hit in dc, and Penney was determined to protect them. She was never afraid.

“When it was clear what the mission would be, I realized that if the universe put me in this place, then that was my purpose.”

While airborne for about three hours, Penney didn’t know the flight number or any details about United 93. Only after she landed did she learn just how close D.C. came to disaster.

“By the time [Sasseville] and I were given the order to launch, we would have been too late. Flight 93 crashed maybe half an hour, 20 minutes before we launched. We would never have been able to stop them. We didn’t know that at the time.”

One of the pilots who later flew up to assist her over D.C. is now the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Caine.

Later that day, Penney and her flight lead escorted Air Force back to Washington so President Bush could address the nation from the White House.

Today, Penney wants to give credit to the true heroes of that day.

“What [Sasseville] and I were willing to do is what the passengers on Flight 93 actually did and I believe anyone would have been willing to.”

As Penney looks back 25 years later, she wants everyone to reflect on the potential heroism that lies inside every American.

“It’s also to remember how we came together as a nation,” she said. “That we remember the best of who we can be and that living that legacy is the best way that we can honor those we lost on 9/11.”