Originally Posted by
Captain Bligh
What if..... in a collaborative effort with the financier of the stollen passport holders, the aircraft was stolen for a purpose? Like a dirty bomb or nuclear device delivery vehicle?
I always said, when I flew it inserting troops to the gulf, was that it was the perfect bomber platform. It could fly so high and fast that NATO fighters that attempted to intercept us for practice (which was allowed since we were using CRAFT mission call signs) often couldn't reach us. Especially ones form EU nations with limited range and airspace. We would pass overhead at 37,000 feet doing .84 mach and they just couldn't close the distance given what they had to work with. The airplane has the ability to haul/deliver 100,000 pounds of payload an incredible distance. If terrorists stole it for a suicide mission, or imagine malicious intent, pick a city and it's gone. There's no way anyone in most of the governments in the world, has the testosterone to shoot down a civilian airliner given the history of how well that's worked in the past, nor with the current administrations at the helm of western governments.
Even if terrorists or a foreign power just landed a 777 full of commandos somewhere after an intercept and started shooting their way out of the airplane, there isn't a civilian airport in the world that would be prepared for it. This is one of the problems with exporting technology for the sake of $$$$$, hoping to replace the cash flow from previously exported manufacturing jobs.
Here's the thing, there's almost always a business man or two that have several global sat phones, one in their pocket one in a briefcase. Unless they killed everyone enroute, someone would make a call. As this story unfolds however; I think most people should hope and pray it crashed.
Long time listener, first time caller here. I've been following this thread for several days now. I'm not a pilot, just a news junkie who's looking for more informed views and minutiae than I'm getting elsewhere. If you wouldn't mind indulging my curiosity, I had a couple of questions...
Firstly, there's been a lot of talk about intercept in this thread, but I haven't seen anything anywhere addressing what I've been wondering about, which is whether it's possible for another rogue aircraft could've done a planned intercept of the flight and coerced the pilots' actions either over a direct communication or via some sort of 'sleeper' agent on the plane? Assuming that's not a completely crazy question, would a second plane be able to travel closely enough along the evasive flightpath to remain a threat without arousing further radar suspicion?
Verging on getting a little more far-fetched, similar to the post above, once there was speculation that the plane could've landed somewhere covertly, my first (possibly Hollywood) thought was whether it would make for an excellent transport of a massive dirty bomb or the like. Supposing the plane is on some remote island off of, say, Indonesia, is it conceivable that it could fly to a target at the far end of its range, initially using the open waters of the Indian Ocean to mask its position? I realize things would get messier once it had borders to contend with, but might some nations' air forces be reluctant to deal with shooting down a flying dirty bomb if the stated target was beyond them? (For example, would Iran bother engaging such a rogue aircraft and risking fallout over its country if the intended target was in Israel?)
Sorry if I'm pushing things into the absurd. I have no illusions I'm about to crack the case, I'm just not sure if I'm completely goofy with these thoughts.