Clearing the Air - First of Two Parts

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Clearing the Air
First of Two Parts
by Robert Yoho, Associate Editor

August 28, 2002

"Eye on Conservatism"

Columnist Robert Yoho We learned much more about the crucial, life-and-death decisions faced by air traffic controllers on September 11th in a recent two-part series in USA Today. "Clearing the Skies" was one of the finest pieces of investigative journalism ever featured in a newspaper commonly known for its shallow reporting.

Reading the story, I was immediately struck with some details that were conspicuously absent. Numerous questions were largely left unanswered. Perhaps the writers were also uncomfortable with the obvious conclusion.

To put it simply: I believe Flight 93 was shot from the skies over Pennsylvania.

Although I have publicly stated this belief since September 11th on my radio show, I have been hesitant to write about it. My reasons are as follows: First, I don’t like the fact that some will immediately label me as a conspiracy theorist. Secondly, some will consider my conclusions to be unpatriotic. Lastly, I have no desire to besmirch the brave actions and legendary exploits of those on Flight 93.

However, I have never been any good about ignoring those things that are right before my eyes. Nor am I good at keeping my mouth shut about them.

I do not for one-minute question that Todd Beamer and some others on the plane tried to overpower the hijackers. We know they took phone calls from those on the ground. We also know that they were fully cognizant about the fates of those on the other hijacked planes. Therefore, it was only reasonable that men like these would choose to go down fighting. However, that said, I have to wonder about one thing:

Where were the fighter jets?

In USA Today’s timeline, planes were scrambled from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia at 9:30. They were not quick enough to prevent the crash of Flight 77 into the Pentagon at 9:38. However, the same could not be said of reaching Flight 93 in Pennsylvania.

The article made it abundantly clear that a plane traveling 500 miles per hour would go one mile every seven seconds. So using their math, a plane would travel approximately 10 miles a minute. Flight 93 crashed in Pennsylvania thirty-six minutes after American fighter planes were scrambled.

Where were they?

In the USA Today piece, it stated that at 10:05: "Military jets are already closing on the Boeing 767 as it barrels toward Washington."

Is closing all they did?

It is only approximately 170 driving miles from Shanksville, PA, to Washington D.C. Our most outdated fighter jets can fly much faster than 500 miles per hour, so planes from Langley could easily have reached the other hijacked airliner.

If they actually shot down the plane over the peaceful, sparsely populated Pennsylvania countryside, then our government and our military have nothing for which they must be ashamed. This was not the indiscriminate taking of human life; this was the saving of it.

There was no question about the hijackers’ ultimate intentions. Their mission had already been revealed. They wanted to kill as many Americans as possible. The hijackers did not simply wish to force down a passenger jet to garner publicity for a cause; the terrorists wanted to use them as weapons of mass destruction.

Two planes had already been deliberately flown into the World Trade Center. Another passenger jet had been commandeered to fly into the Pentagon. America was at war.

If the military shot down a hijacked civilian airliner, it was not an act of treachery. It was self-defense. These fighter pilots were just doing their job, to defend America from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

This was September 11th, the darkest day in our nation’s history. America was deliberately and viciously attacked. This was not a government abuse of power. This was not an excessive use of lethal force. This was not Waco, where innocent American children were wantonly slaughtered because of some hastily concocted and dubious threat to public safety.

The military tried in vain to stop the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. However, they had plenty of time to get to Pennsylvania. They had time to stop this latest threat! They had an obligation! To let that plane reach Washington, to let other innocent civilians be killed needlessly — and for them to do nothing to stop it — that would have been negligent. And ultimately, un-American! ***

Photo of Robert Yoho courtesy of staff files