09/11/2026
“I’ll take the cockpit.”
“I’ll take the tail.”
On September 11 2001, two F-16 pilots took off from Andrews Air Force Base knowing their mission could end with them deliberately crashing their own fighters into a hijacked passenger jet.
Lt. Col. Marc Sasseville and 1st Lt. Heather “Lucky” Penney were scrambled as the attacks unfolded and United Airlines Flight 93 was believed to be heading toward Washington. There was one enormous problem: their F-16s had no live missiles aboard. There simply wasn’t time to arm them before launching.
So the two pilots devised an extraordinary last-resort plan.
Sasseville would ram Flight 93’s cockpit. Penney would strike the tail, destroying the aircraft’s ability to remain airborne.
“I’m going to go for the cockpit,” Sasseville told her.
“I’ll take the tail,” Penney replied.
Both understood what that could mean. Penney later described it as potentially a one-way mission.
They raced toward Washington and searched for the missing airliner, unaware that the passengers and crew aboard Flight 93 had already fought back against the hijackers. The Boeing 757 had crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, before the fighters were airborne.
Penney would later insist that the real heroes that morning were the people aboard Flight 93.
They had done what the two fighter pilots were preparing to sacrifice their own lives to do: stop the aircraft from reaching Washington.
