Fighter jets escort plane after bomb threat

[Eirikur]

BBC News - Military jets escort Qatar Airways plane to Manchester Airport

Don't really see what the purpose of such an escort is, apart from shooting the aeroplane out of the sky in case it gets hijacked and the hijacker wants to fly into a building like 9/11
Which is not a very comforting thought for the passengers as they could actually see the jets (see the film in the article) You know they are there just for one reason, to shoot you out of the sky

[SueEllen]

Don't really see what the purpose of such an escort is, apart from shooting the aeroplane out of the sky in case it gets hijacked and the hijacker wants to fly into a building like 9/11

Exactly.

They basically divert them over a field or somewhere with a very low population density.

[northernladuk]

Exactly.

They basically divert them over a field or somewhere with a very low population density.

or Birmingham....

[Old Greg]

or Birmingham....

Or Eastern Ukraine.

[SueEllen]

Or Eastern Ukraine.

The rebels would have missed.

[KentPhilip]

or Birmingham....

Well they'd probably kill more muslims there, than infidels..

[CloudWalker]

Well they'd probably kill more muslims there, than infidels..

[NickFitz]

One of the passengers was live-tweeting it, and responding to various news organisations that were bombarding him with questions as they were coming in to land.

I retweeted the one that said "The guy sat next me says hi".

[BrilloPad]

One of the passengers was live-tweeting it, and responding to various news organisations that were bombarding him with questions as they were coming in to land.

I retweeted the one that said "The guy sat next me says hi".

I thought you were supposed to turn off mobile devices on landing?

Anything to get ones story in the media I suppose.

[VectraMan]

I thought you were supposed to turn off mobile devices on landing?

Probably doesn't matter much if the plane has a bomb on board, or you're about to be shot down by the RAF.

Though it would be ironic if after the bomb having turned out to be a hoax, and the RAF withdrawn, the plane was brought down anyway by Twitter.