(10:42 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Andrews Fighters Finally Take Off, but without Missiles

Capt. Heather Penney Garcia. [Source: ABC]Two F-16s take off from Andrews Air Force Base armed with nothing more than “hot” guns and non-explosive training rounds. Lead pilot Lt. Col. Marc Sasseville flies one; the other pilot is Capt. Heather Penney Garcia, also known by the codename Lucky. These fighters had been waiting to be armed with AIM-9 missiles, a process that takes about an hour. [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 6/3/2002] Since they take off without the missiles, presumably they could have taken off unarmed much earlier. (The first call for them to scramble came not long after 9:00 a.m.). Two more F-16s, armed with AIM-9 missiles, will take off ten minutes later, at 10:52 a.m. These are piloted by Major Dan Caine and Captain Brandon Rasmussen. [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 9/9/2002; 9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004; Vogel, 2007, pp. 446] F-16s from Richmond, Virginia, and Atlantic City, New Jersey, will arrive over Washington a short time later. [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 9/9/2002] The Andrews fighters are apparently the only fighters in the US scrambled before 11:00 with official shootdown authorization, but the first Andrews fighters into the air have no missiles. It is unclear if the Andrews fighters relaunching a few minutes earlier had shootdown orders, but they had no weapons either. It appears the Andrews fighters launching at 10:52 a.m. are the first fighters in the US with both shootdown orders and missiles to use.