Kill Everyone On Board

The F-16s aren't there to kill everyone on board. They're there so that if they do need to kill everyone on board, they're in the right position.<p>When information channels are so weak, it's imperative to get into the best decisionmaking vantage point available.

Kill everyone is certainly not the only option nor the most likely reason for scrambling. Any commander will value eyes on the ground as high quality intelligence, and in this situation a calm professional pilot obsrving the cockpit will be useful, even if the airforce don't have gizmos for listening in, videoing etc<p>so, no, reaching for a gun might mean you just want to look down the sight to see more.

&#62;Now, there is only one thing that the F-16s could have done in this situation. Either they do nothing, or they shoot down the plane.<p>Utter BS. Before it comes to killing, the escort fighters usually show to the plane being escorted where to go. They do it using radio, visually (pilot's hands, overall fighter maneuvering and rolling), and if it comes to it - using tracer rounds. After the escorted plane refuse to follow the commands ... and continue flying toward DC ... in the post 9/11 world the kill would seem like a publicly acceptable outcome.

Sometimes I'm amazed that people don't understand why we have a military and what it does for us.

I figured it was a scare tactic. "See those jets outside the window? Yea you're in that much trouble". Kind of like when you're picking on someone and their big bother shows up.