What could a fighter jet do if a plane goes rogue in a terrorism situation. Surely they can’t push the plane in a certain direction to prevent them causing harm the plane is too big and that’s a recipe for disaster all round. Shooting the plane down has its own complications especially if flying over populated area.
What could they actually do in a code red situation?
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Shooting down a plane will kill everyone inside.
However: a plane that has been blown to bits presents much less threat to people on the ground than a plane intentionally flown into a target.
For starters, the jet fuel will no longer be contained and will disperse over a wide area. This makes it much less of a fire hazard.
Second, the broken up debris from an airplane is less aerodynamic than the plane itself. That means they travel much slower than the plane. While big chunks of debris can do damage to things and people on the ground, ideally the fighter would shoot the plane down over unpopulated areas.
But the other reason to send a fighter jet up is just intimidation. To let the terrorists know they will be shot down before they ever mange to fly the plane at a target.
Finally, militaries will scramble fighter jets in other kinds of emergencies simply so the fighter can assess the state of the airplane from the outside. The fighter jet can see if the plane is damaged and can look inside the windows to see if the pilot or passengers are conscious in the case of “ghost planes”.
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