Name Heather Penney | Role Pilot | |
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Known for flying a suicide mission to prevent United Airlines Flight 93 from reaching Washington DC during the September 11, 2011 terrorist attacks | ||
Maj heather penney of d c air national guard her 9 11 mission to takeout flight 93
Heather Penney is the director of United States Air Force Air Superiority at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company. She is best known for her role as a USAF lieutenant who was one of two pilots ordered to ram and down United Airlines Flight 93 before it reached Washington, DC, during the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Contents
- Maj heather penney of d c air national guard her 9 11 mission to takeout flight 93
- 2010 air races john heather penney
- Early life
- Air National Guard
- September 11 attacks
- Iraq War
- Post Retirement
- References
2010 air races john heather penney
Early life
Heather Penney was a literature major at Purdue University. Her father was retired Air Force Col. John Penney, who after retirement joined United Airlines.
Air National Guard
Penney was the "only woman in her fighter pilot training class and the only woman in her fighter squadron" (121st Fighter Squadron) with the DC Air National Guard, stationed at Joint Base Andrews.
September 11 attacks
Maj. Penney, who was a first lieutenant at the time, was ordered into the air in her F-16 fighter jet alongside Marc H. Sasseville's aircraft at Andrews Air Force Base as the terrorist attacks were unfolding on September 11, 2001. They were ordered to down United Flight 93 before it reached Washington, DC's, airspace but because of the urgency, there was not time to outfit their aircraft with live ammunition. The mission could only have been accomplished by ramming the plane with their respective fighter jets. Penney was sure her father, United Airlines pilot John Penney, was flying the plane, though he was not. Flight 93 subsequently crashed as heroic passengers fought to take control of the aircraft. This ended the mission. When asked why she was ready to fly a kamikaze mission, "Why? Because there are things in this world that are more important than ourselves. Freedom. The Constitution of the United States. Our way of life. Mom, baseball, apple pie; these things and so many more that make us uniquely American. We belong to something greater than ourselves. As complex and diverse and discordant as it is, this thing, this idea called America, binds us together in citizenship and community and brotherhood."
Iraq War
She served two tours of duty in the Iraq war.
Post Retirement
She currently works for Lockheed on the F-35 project. On September 7, 2017, Penney and her father, John Penney, gave a lecture titled 9/11 Perspectives at National Air and Space Museum as part of the GE Aviation Lecture Series.