An oral history of 9/11 Flight 93

[MillCreek]

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/09/05/911-oral-history-flight-93-book-excerpt-228001

An interesting read, especially about the 'fog of war' and having to make quick decisions with imperfect and conflicting information.  I will have to get the book when it comes out.

[Hawkmoon]

I had forgotten that the only jets we could scramble were unarmed, and the two pilots were going to sacrifice themselves to take down the aircraft.

I hope the Air Force never makes that mistake again.

[230RN]

Wow !

That was great.

Thank  you.

I remember that morning getting ready for work and had the sound off the TV.  I noticed the burning building.  I thought it was a commercial for one of those disaster movies.  Then I realized that was one helluva long commercial and turned the sound up.

I watched the whole thing and, like everyone else, when the second building was struck, knew it was a terrorist attack.  Watched everything.  Could  not reach anybody at the office, except for the recorded "snow day" message, which much later said they had evacuated and sent everyone home.

Terry, 230RN

[Jamisjockey]

I had forgotten that the only jets we could scramble were unarmed, and the two pilots were going to sacrifice themselves to take down the aircraft.

I hope the Air Force never makes that mistake again.

If they do, it will be a long time.  All the alert jets are armed.

[MillCreek]

I know that for the Pacific NW, the Oregon ANG keeps two F-15s fully armed (AMRAAM, Sidewinder and cannon) and fueled on a 15 minute strip alert at the Portland airport.  Tanker support is dispatched as needed from Fairchild in Spokane. 

Last year, when the plane was stolen from Sea-Tac (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Horizon_Air_Q400_incident), the F-15s were launched to intercept and went supersonic from Portland to Seattle.  The local TV news that night had footage of them flying around south of Seattle on the intercept.