On Sun, 25 Jan 2015 00:36:20 -0500, wrote:

On Sun, 25 Jan 2015 00:17:43 -0500, micky
wrote:

When there is a bomb threat on a plane that is in the air, and the air
force scrambles fighter planes to accompany the plane, what is the point
of that?

Is someone going to reach his hands out of the fighter and disable the
bomb?

They might shoot the plane down if it headed for a big population
center.

That applies if it's hijacked, but if there is a bomb threat, like there
was today on two planes, it wouldn't be a good idea to shoot it down
until one knew for sure there was a bomb ( and one that couldn't be
found, removed, and thrown out the door).

Generally, to know for sure there is a bomb, they have to wait until the
bomb explodes, and then it's either too late to shoot it down, or if the
plane is still flying, either things won't get any worse or there's a
second bomb** and we're back to the original situation

So why the fighter planes, like they did today?

They are supposed to divert it to a remote airport somewhere.
In real life, we haven't really seen many bomb threats lately.

**To stay safe, I always carry a bomb when I fly. What are the odds
there will be two bombs on the same plane?