• andrew@lemmy.stuart.fun
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    35
    arrow-down
    3
    ·
    edit-2
    10 months ago

    Also what’s the goal of scrambling jets when the threat is a passenger inside said jet? Are they gonna ask the pilot to pipe the radio to the PA and say “you better not blow up that plane because we’re in charge and we said so?” Do they have a sniper on the wing ready to take out just one guy meanwhile depressurizing the whole fuselage, potentially explosively? Maybe Top Gun Tom Cruise can hit the guy with a burst of the 20mm? Seems like there’s no point whatsoever. Best case they can say “yep it blew up” or “nope it didn’t blow up.”

    • CarbonIceDragon@pawb.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      31
      ·
      10 months ago

      I mean, were there actually a terrorist onboard the plane, I imagine the logic would be “If they hijack it and decide to try to crash it into something 9/11 style, a fighter can at least blow it up in time to prevent more casualties on the ground”

      • TheRealKuni@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        10 months ago

        This would make sense. Fighters were scrambled to take out Flight 93. The assumed target was the White House, so they were scrambled so fast they didn’t have time to arm them. Their plan was to literally crash into the hijacked plane. One into the tail, one into the cockpit.

        By the time they arrived the plane had already been brought down by the passengers.

    • GBU_28@lemm.ee
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      ·
      edit-2
      10 months ago

      The jets are to shoot down the airliner if it aims towards a dense area, sensitive location, etc.

    • Chozo@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      10 months ago

      They’d shoot the plane down if they can’t get the pilot to land safely. They’d rather one plane full of innocent passengers gets killed than a plane full of innocent passengers and a building full of even more innocents.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          6
          ·
          10 months ago

          he was at the airport check in when he sent it. assuming 2 hours between check in and boarding… that’s actually a really fast time to figure out who sent a random snap, unless somebody overheard him and then followed him while reporting it.

          Or if Snapchat flagged it and reported it to the airport (which they absolutely will do.)