How do you force a passenger plane down, they can’t just shoot a civilian aircraft if the pilots refuse?
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Who is “they” in this question?
Because a lot of armed groups and countries have demonstrated that they will in fact shoot down civilian aircraft.
They can and would if it seemed necessary. I think they’d prefer that to another 9/11. If the plane has really been hijacked by someone intending to use it in that way, the civilian passengers are going to die anyway, so it’s a matter of preventing further death.
You do shoot it down. During 9/11 fighter pilots had orders to shoot down passenger aircraft that didn’t land. This included domestic flights.
Thankfully that didn’t have to happen and no pilots live with that in their conscience.
Source: stories from people who were fighter pilots during 9/11.
You start by having the control tower order them to land. They’re supposed to follow instructions and land. If they do, you don’t have a problem, so I’ll assume they don’t.
You then send military fighter jets to intercept it. The pilots of those jets radio the airliner and order him to land. (There are standard frequencies for stuff like that, and airliners are supposed to listen to them.) If he doesn’t, they can do various things to intimidate him, such as flying by at high speeds, flying close above him, dropping flares, or firing their guns in front of him. If he still doesn’t land, they can try to shoot to disable his engines, but at that point they’re likely to do enough damage to bring the plane down. And yes, they can shoot him down. It’s very easy to shoot down a target that big and slow, and if he’s in your airspace and not responding to instructions, you have every right to do so.
If he’s not in your airspace, that’s a matter for the respective governments to deal with, and it might come down to whether either or both countries want to go to war over it.
Usually, they’ll land when the tower orders them to land, because few pilots are going to risk their career, not to mention their passengers and their lives, by refusing to follow the orders of the tower.
In addition to shooting it down they can fly too close and make your flight very dangerous. There is a technique called thumping where a jet overtakes another from behind and cuts across in front of the wing at an angle causing the victim aircraft to hit the wake and yaw to the side violently. When badly judged the aggressive aircraft can clip the wing and cause disaster. The US has claimed Chinese pilots have caused a collision or two like this and it was not uncommon during the cold war.
https://youtu.be/zjkSeuD-8yA Crisis Command: Could You Run The Country? was a British TV show from 2004 that dealt with this issue (and others). It’s a fascinating watch.
I mean its all under the threat of shooting them down, which many militaries can do if the plane poses a threat.
I feel like ya kinda answered your own question here. As far as I’m aware, forcing an aircraft down more or less amounts to “land under your own power, or crash when we shoot you out of the sky”. At least, that’s how my English Prof, who is a hobbyist pilot, explained it.
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