They are there in an observation role - they'll take a look at the flight deck and make sure the pilots are in control and not harassed, especially if contact is lost, and generally look for anything unusual including possible damage. It also sends a clear message that any indication of a threat will taken seriously and treated extremely seriously.



It didn't fly over the city centre - very few do, they tend to approach along the Pennines and from the East over Hyde/Stockport, or from the West over Knutsford/Northwich depending on prevailing winds. QR23 approached from the direction of London and circled over the Pennines near Buxton while the Typhoon was scrambled, it then flew in over Stockport.



And yes, if it became clear the aircraft had been hijacked and was absolutely, definitely, 100% about to be used as a flying bomb it could potentially be shot down. Though reaching that decision would be a nightmare.

Yeah I knew about the Vulcan bombing run after reading the book about it a few years ago. A typically British operation with good dollops of cock-up alongside ingenuity, bravery and determination.

I also knew some US B-2's had done some bombing runs from America to targets in the Middle East and back again recently but wasn't sure if any fighters had done. (I know the Tornado is used as a bomber these days).

Just got to say, I fecking adore the B-2 (in engineering/aircraft context). Awesome aircraft.

yes think it was a qatar to manchester flight.



he has been sectioned under the mental health act

it would be down to david cameron to make the decision whether to shoot a plane down or not i read today

I'm not sure about Camoron, but if it was Tony Bliar, he'd ask "God", and then do what he convinced himself the imaginary voice in his head wanted. That is how mad things are.

An impossible decision to make in the UK, a little easier in the USA, so for instance when Payne Stewarts private jet decompressed and killed everyone on board but kept flying for hours the military followed it down to the ground (almost) when it finally ran out of fuel and crashed in an unpopulated area, there is speculation that they would have shot it down were it to be heading for a city.



Slightly different scenario in the UK with a large aircraft thats going to make a big mess on the ground whether it falls naturally or you blow it up in mid air, there aren't too many places on the normal flight paths that you cold pick to say "Heres a good place to explode a large passenger jet over with a guarantee that no-one lives beneath".

Odsal? big crater there already

That's so crass, I'm actually lost for words.

I've never seen that one before.

Another one goes down. An Iranian passenger plane with 48 on board crashes shortly after take off from Tehran.



Not a good year so far. Those statisticians who were suggesting the imminent possibility of a zero deaths year look a bit daft now.

are they still searching for the malaysian plane then went down off the coast of Australia? not heard anything for a while.



and what about the black box recovered from the Ukraine crash... did that give anything , guess they know but not giving it out yet

They are indeed searching and are now well on with the laborious mapping process of the area of sea bed of greatest interest.

[urlhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-29378953[/url



This sort of thing:





The resolution is far too co to pick up something as small as an aircraft, but the mapping wasn't done for that reason, it was to plot courses to drag the detection equipment, without crashing into obstructions etc. Apparently, before this, we had better maps of Mars than of this area of sea bed, and the mountains on it are said to make the Himalayas "look like foothills" so the scale of the challenge is literally and mind-bogglingly enormous.