I'd be a kamikaze pilot: Fighter pilot recalls her would-be 'suicide' mission to take down United 93 - and the heroes who did it for her

When a group of fighter pilots in Washington, D.C., were told a plane had struck the World Trade Center, they assumed it was an inexperienced pilot in a Cessna.



But as the rest of 9/11 unfolded, the pilots realized it was their turn to act.



Heather 'Lucky' Penney was one of them, a young blonde in her 20s so enamoured with flying that jet fuel practically coursed through her veins.



Ultimate sacrifice: Heather Penney was one of the first in line for a mission to take out United Flight 93, which was believed to be heading for Washington

Tough task: Heather Penney's mission on the morning of September 11 was to find United Flight 93 - and destroy it however she could

Her father John, also an avid pilot, flew in Vietnam, and she was following in his footsteps.

Miss Penney is now the director of the F-35 program at Lockheed Martin and part-time National Guard pilot who has not lost her passion for flying.

But 10 years ago, she was one of the first rookie female fighter pilots, who signed up as soon as she heard the news that combat aviation was being opened to women.

On the morning of September 11, she was first again, this time for a task involving a fourth hijacked plane on a course for Washington, and possibly others.

Her mission: Find United Flight 93 – and destroy it however she could.

But in a fighter jet absent of missiles and packed only with dummy ammunition from a recent training mission, there was only one way to do it.



‘We wouldn’t be shooting it down. We’d be ramming the aircraft,’ Penney recalled in an interview with the Washington Post. ‘I would essentially be a kamikaze pilot.'

Back then, there were no armed F-16s at the ready at Andrews Air Force Base, and it would take nearly an hour to get them armed. There was no time.

Combat jets needed to be in the air to protect Washington, and they had to get there immediately.



'Lucky': Penney signed up to be a combat pilot as soon as she learned the opportunity was being offered to women

Keeping the skies safe: Heather Penney spent the remainder of September 11 in the air, piloting an F-16 like this one, seen escorting the president in Air Force One

'Lucky, you’re coming with me,' Colonel Marc Sasseville shouted.

Mr Sasseville, who is now stationed at the Pentagon, said: 'We don’t train to bring down airliners. If you just hit the engine, it could still glide and you could guide it to a target. My thought was the cockpit or the wing.'



'Heroes': United Flight 93 crashed in a field outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania on 9/11 during a passenger revolt to take the plane back from terrorists

He admitted he thought about the possibility of utilizing his ejection seat to bail out just before striking the jet.

But Miss Penney said it was of much greater concern to eject from her plane and risk missing the target and fail the mission, even if it saved her life.



Sass, as Miss Penney called him, said he would take out the cockpit. She would take the tail.



She said: ‘I knew that if I took off the tail of the aircraft, it would essentially go straight down and so the pattern of debris would be minimized.'



Ditching the usual pre-flight preparations, she shot into the sky, following Sass at speeds of 400 mph.



The jets passed over the ravaged Pentagon, flying low and scouring the sky.

It wasn’t until hours later that they would find out United 93 had already gone down in a field outside Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

But that didn't mean their job was done, as Miss Penney spent the remainder of that day in the air, clearing airspace and escorting the president as he flew in Air Force One.

After the mission, Miss Penney went on to become a major and fly two tours of duty in Iraq.

Now a mother of two, she didn’t have to make the ultimate sacrifice on 9/11 – a group of courageous passengers did instead.



She said: 'The real heroes are the passengers on Flight 93 who were willing to sacrifice themselves. I was just an accidental witness to history.'

10 years later: Heather Penney is now a mother of two who hasn't lost her passion for flying