> Either it was shoot down, or would have been later
The jets were scrambled in such a hurry to intercept Flight 93 that they weren’t loaded with ammunition. I’m afraid that the plan was to collide the fighters with the plane if necessary. It was a suicide mission. [1] However, we have plenty of evidence that the passengers resisted and in the course of that the plane crashed.
I'd also recommend taking a look at "The Only Plane in the Sky" by Garrett Graff, which is an oral history of 9/11; basically, a huge number of in-person interviews that construct a timeline of the days leading up to, during, and after 9/11, including those of the pilots who went up in the fighters, knowing that should they need to, mid-air collision was the only option if they needed to intercept something. For what it's worth: a great read, but a tough one. I'm sure you won't have trouble finding a book link, but Politico [1] has an excerpt if you're interested.
