Why didn't we?

Question

Can anyone tell me why none of the high jacked planes on 9/11 were taken out in mid-flight? I find it pretty hard to believe that no one noticed these jumbo jets flying off course, and after the first one hit the towers it was pretty obvious they were out for blood, so why didn't we send fighter jets after them??

To Rurouni Ian's comment....if my Mom was on the plane she would have died either way, so yes I would have wanted them to shoot down the plane and save thousands of other innocent lives...selfish bastard.

Answer 1

It does take a little time to get the f-18's up and into the air. They come out of Maryland and western NY. If a call was made when the first plane went off course and we shot it down w/out knowing exactly went was going on you would have ever liberal and Dem. off the wall. I feel very tough decisions were made that day. I sure would not liked to be in any of the officials shoes that day. My son is coming home this week from Iraq, so I hope you are not against this war.

Answer 2

the hijacked planes werent intercepted because:
1.just because a plane is off course, doesnt mean we blow it up. and if the hijackers were flying the plane, none of the grounds crew could do anything to make them go back on course
2. when the first plane hit the tower, everyone thought it was an accident, like what happened to the Empire State Buildinbg in the 1960s or '70s (i dont remember when exactl;y, but a plane crashed into the Empire State Building).
3. When your actually in the situation itself, not watching from a third party, you act differently than you would normally. The grounds crew at the time probably were thinking "how to we save the people on board" or Whats wrong with the captain, hes off course". but now, a few years later, we know what happened as so we ithink "i would have done this to save the victims".

Answer 3

Actually it wasn't until 2nd plane hit towers we realized that we were under attack. by that time not much could be done. We did scramble jets to do just that but all the planes had either reached their targets or had been downed by passengers. Keep in mind also taking down a jumbo jet filled with innocents over populated areas would not be our first choice of actions, a more peaceful solution would be sought first. The exception would be any plane heading for White House or Capitol

Answer 4

Because the Government would rather see thousands of Americans die at the Terrorists hands than see hundreds die at their hands. Moslty politics. If we had shot down any of those planes somebody would've b*tched about killing those people, but those people would have died anyway, and thousands more died because we did nothing. Some people say we didn't have time, but after no one responded on the radio and the first plane hit, they should've figured it out and taken out the rest. Rumor has it that most of the pentagon was evacuated before it was hit, because they knew what was going on. F*CK THE GOVERNMENT!

Answer 5

Oh, I expect in 50 years that when the records are declassified that the jet that went down on the ground in PN was indeed shot down. May I live to say 'I told you so.'

I'll say my opinion, truthfully, if our government didn't shoot that last plane down, I'm very disappointed in them. The first 3 planes that departed on schedule & hit their targets, OK, not enough time. But plenty of time to get the plane that departed late. Could of Should of Better of!

It was luck that the cell phone conversations of the passengers were recorded & availiable (e.g. the "lets roll" comment) in support of the plans by the passengers to rush the cockpit. It went on to be used for patriotic propaganda; I find it somewhat suspicious the the Pres of the US saw fit to seize that quote ASAP after it was utterred. There is a gap in time between these conversations and the plane actually going down. Does that prove that the passengers (or the disruption they caused) took the plane down? As civillians, I'd have to say we really don't know.

Remember that Churchill knew that London would be firebombed, and was unable to tell (it would have blown the D-Day invasion to let on that the code was broken). 50 years later the information was declassified.

If the gov't/military did shoot down the last plane, imagine the psychological impact to the country if it was known at the time; if it is so, it's best for us we don't know now. Of course, we all know that it would have been true devastation of our country & political system if that plane had not gone down and had in fact gone on to hit the Capitol Dome (at a time when both houses of Congress were in session!!), or to hit the White House. But if that last plane was shot down by us to prevent that castrophe, I'm not certain the general population could handle that.

It is my hope that our government / military did have the capability to and actually did shoot down that last plane. But if they didn't then, I sure hope they have that capability now.

(Of note, I did hear one news broadcast at the time that actually did say that last plane was shot down intentionally; that report was quickly squelched and replaced by what I call the "lets roll" theory). Lets see what they say 50 years on...(that is, 45 years from now)

Answer 6

Because their goals were not to blow up planes but take out buildings. The twin towers (showing that they could attack us financially) and the White House (showing that they could attack us politically) and the Pentagon (showing that they could attack us militarily). They were making a definate statement.

Answer 7

The way I heard it, and I even saw pictures of this on the news once (although it does make me wonder how the media knew this) was that we were chasing them but couldn't catch them.
It sounds strange to me that the media new about it but no one else apparently did.
But that was the story I heard.

Answer 8

They were noticed but no one expected them to fly into buildings. Fool us once shame on you, fool us twice shame on us !! Won't happen again. Hind sight is a great thing. ?:)z

Answer 9

dont know but i also heard that most of any fbi and cia employees were off that same day! is there any truth to this and if so why is it not being told?

Answer 10

hey. there were PEOPLE on there too. deployment of fighters also takes a while. if your mom was on there, would u want the government to shoot them down?