It is speculated that Flight 93 was headed towards either the White House or the Capitol building, which would have undoubtedly caused a number of causalities among government officials. Vice President Dick Cheney admitted within days of the event that President Bush had given full permission for the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to shoot down any plane that presented a danger to the government. In an interview on "Meet the Press" on September 16, 2001, Cheney stated:.
The president made the decision.that if the plane would not divert.as a last resort, our pilots were authorized to take them out. Now, people say, you know, that's a horrendous decision to make. Well, it is. You've got an airplane full of American citizens, civilians, captured by.terrorists, headed and are you going to, in fact, shoot it down, obviously, and kill all those Americans on board? It's a presidential-level decision, and the president made, I think, exactly the right call in this case, to say, "I wished we'd had combat air patrol up over New York". ("Dick Cheney").
When Flight 93 crashed, it was only 160 miles – approximately 15 minutes flying time – from Washington D.C. The exact crash time has been disputed, with most eyewitnesses and original reports stating 10:03am, but the 9/11 Commission reports that the plane went down at 10:10. President Bush's authorization to shoot down any planes that posed a threat to the capital was given anywhere from 9:15am to 9:30am (Bunch). At 9:24 that morning, NORAD ordered three F-16s from Langley Air Force Base in Hampton, Virginia to scramble. They were airborne at 9:30 and directed towards Reagan National Airport in Washington D.C., according to the NORAD timeline (Sack & Wald). The Reagan Airport is 128 miles from Shanksville, PA, which is about 12 minutes flying time at 600 MPH, which is the recorded speed of the fighter jets.
