U.S. military pilots were told to shoot down hijacked commercial airplanes over Washington, Vice President Dick Cheney said today.
Speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," the vice president said President Bush "made the decision ... that if the plane would not divert, if they wouldn't pay any attention to instructions to move away from the city, as a last resort, our pilots were authorized to take them out."
"As it turned out, we did not have to execute on that authorization." Cheney said. "But there were a few moments when we thought we might."
Questions of U.S. military action have surrounded the crash of a hijacked airliner in rural Pennsylvania. But although the government was authorized to shoot down the errant planes, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told the NewsHour he believes that crash came instead as a result of a passenger uprising.
"We responded awfully quickly I might say on Tuesday," Wolfowitz said. "And in fact we were already tracking in on that plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. I think it was the heroism of the passengers on board that brought it down, but the Air Force was in a position to do so if we had had to." -PBS (9/16/01)
/Feds Would Have Shot Down Pa. Jet <http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/09/12/archive/main311011.shtml>
U.S. officials were considering shooting down the hijacked airliner that crashed in western Pennsylvania, but it crashed first. "The president made the decision ... that if the plane would not divert, if they wouldn't pay any attention to instructions to move away from the city, as a last resort, our pilots were authorized to take them out," Vice President Dick Cheney told NBC's "Meet the Press" program Sunday.
Contradictions
"In fact, military commanders were never notified <http://www.newsday.com/ny-usjets152367640sep15.story> of the need to intercept hijacked United Airlines Flight 93, even after it turned abruptly from Ohio toward Pennsylvania, so there were no U.S. military jets in the air nearby, said Maj. Gen. Paul A. Weaver Jr., director of the Air National Guard.
Weaver went further Friday, saying planes had scrambled to intercept three other hijacked jets over New York and Washington - but that no such notification ever was made to commanders about the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania, apparently because it initially stayed on its flight plan toward Ohio and was the last to crash.
When it crashed in Pennsylvania, no U.S. military jets were in the sky nearby, simply because they had never been notified to scramble, Weaver said." -Newsday (9/15/01)
In addition, a Korean Air jetliner en route to Anchorage signaled that it was being hijacked, though that proved to be a false alarm.
As the fourth hijacked plane was over Pennsylvania, seemingly headed for Washington, military commanders, the FAA, and White House officials were on a conference call discussing options.
At the time, there were two F-16s armed with air-to-air missiles within 60 miles of Flight 93. But the fighters were still out of missile range when the jetliner crashed, sources said.
No decision had to be made, but administration officials say that, had the jetliner continued toward Washington, the fighter jets would have shot it down. The rationale, say the sources, was that the government was willing to "kill 100 to save a thousand".
Also on Tuesday, the FAA and military officials were alarmed when a Korean Air jetliner inbound to Anchorage sent a radio signal that it too had been hijacked. Before it got to Alaska, jet fighters were trailing it, and the plane eventually landed at a remote base in Canada. -CBS (9/16/01)
In the White House bunker, a military aide approached the vice president.
"There is a plane 80 miles out," he said. "There is a fighter in the area <http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42754-2002Jan26>.
Should we engage?"
"Yes," Cheney replied without hesitation.
Around the vice president, Rice, deputy White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Cheney's chief of staff, tensed as the military aide repeated the question, this time with even more urgency. The plane was now 60 miles out. "Should we engage?" Cheney was asked.
"Yes," he replied again.
As the plane came closer, the aide repeated the question. Does the order still stand?
"Of course it does," Cheney snapped.
Within minutes, there was a report that a plane had crashed in southwestern Pennsylvania-what turned out to be United Flight 93, a Boeing 757 that had been hijacked after leaving Newark International Airport. Many of those in the PEOC feared that Cheney's order had brought down a civilian aircraft. Rice demanded that someone check with the Pentagon.
On Air Force One, Bush inquired, "Did we shoot it down or did it crash?"
It took the Pentagon almost two hours to confirm that the plane had not been shot down, an enormous relief. "I think an act of heroism occurred on board that plane," Cheney said. Later, reports of cell phone conversations before the plane crashed indicated that some passengers had fought with the hijackers. - Washington Post (1/27/02) "As the fourth hijacked plane was over Pennsylvania, seemingly headed for Washington, military commanders, the FAA, and White House officials were on a conference call discussing options.
At the time, there were two F-16s armed with air-to-air missiles <http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2001/09/12/archive/main311011.shtml> within 60 miles of Flight 93. But the fighters were still out of missile range when the jetliner crashed, sources said."
Also on Tuesday, the FAA and military officials were alarmed when a Korean Air jetliner inbound to Anchorage sent a radio signal that it too had been hijacked. Before it got to Alaska, jet fighters were trailing it, and the plane eventually landed at a remote base in Canada.
That plane had not been hijacked, and there's been no explanation as to why it was sending out the hijacking signal. But in light of what had already happened in New York and Washington, sources say, that jetliner was also in serious jeopardy of being shot down. -CBS (9/16/01)
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Cony ...