Originally Posted by
joepilot
Ref the shoot down idea: Any kill is a kill. The F-16 jocks would have been fighting over who got to take the shot, and then it would count on their OERs as an enemy aircraft destroyed. Believe it.
Joe
In the case of an airplane occupied only by a hijacker(s), then yeah sure.
But I have a friend who flew an interceptor mission on the morning of 9/11, and it still bothers him to this day that he might have had to splash an airliner full of innocent people. He was seriously conflicted while afterburning to his assigned CAP. As it turned out, no hijackings showed up in his airspace.
If I was in that position, that's a shot I would have gladly let somebody else take, if practical. Fangs-out fighter pilots are not necessarily psychopaths.