When fighter jets are scrambled to intercept a plane for security reasons, what can they actually do?

Submitted ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago⁩ by ⁨scytale@lemm.ee⁩ to ⁨nostupidquestions@lemmy.world⁩

Like a commercial jet that has been hijacked or reported to have a potential threat. Are they basically just there to shoot down the plane before it can be used to cause larger casualties by crashing into a heavily populated area? I can’t imagine what else a jet can do to a large commercial aircraft in the air.

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Hugin@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
So on 9/11 the fighters scrambled to intercept United 91 had no weapons installed. There were no orders but one of the two pilots sad the plan was to ram the cockpit bringing down the both their plane and the passenger plane.

I’ll add that very few fighter pilots will ever scramble a plane. There is a large checklist pilots go through before taking off particularly a fighter. When a fighter is scrambled that’s all skipped.

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- remon@ani.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  United 91
  
  *93
  
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- lemming741@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  It’s crazy they scrambled with zero offensive capabilities back then. Not even the 20mm cannon was loaded.
  
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  - Fuck_Team@lemmy.one ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    They weren’t scrambled if I remember correctly. They were airborne for a training mission and closer than the scrambled jets were. That’s why they had no munitions
    
    Source: Talked to a pilot who’s instructor was one of those pilots
    
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hddsx@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
From what I’ve heard from my coworker do actually flew:

Step 1: Attempt radio contact on local frequencies and guard.

Step 2: Try to lead you out of restricted air space

Step 3: Try to REALLY get your attention like doing precision fly so that you are unmistakably aware of them (like a really really close fly by). If this works, try step 2 again

Step 4: Really depends on where you are and/or who you are. If you are willfully violating air space and a civilian, you’ll probably get your certificate revoked and/or face. If you get near something really sensitive and probably are doing so purposefully despite attempts to get your attention, and you’re not over a densely populated area, you could get shot down.

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- IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  
  you’ll probably get your certificate revoked and/or face.
  
  Lol, did you not finish typing it? 😆
  
  “face prison time” I assume you meant?
  
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  - Shapillon@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    They straight up remove the front part of your head.
    
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  - hddsx@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Apparently I edited without finishing lmao. I meant face criminal charges
    
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  - tooclose104@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I think grammatically they meant you could also get your face revoked, leading into the following sentence of being shot down.
    
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Lojcs@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
They bark as loudly as possible before shooting because once they shoot it turns into a situation™

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IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Its to scare civillians into compliance. Most of the time, they won’t shoot you unless they believe your aircraft is about to strike a building or something like that.

Its also to allow the pilots of the fighter jet to visually see what’s happening inside. In Helios Flight 522, the cabin presurization wasn’t set properly, so the entire plane lost consciousless. The autopilot flew the flight and went into a holding pattern near the destination, and because the pilots haven’t communicated with Air Traffic Control, send they fighter jets to “intercept” it. They didn’t do anything besides the Fighter Jet pilot just visually looking in the plane, and see the oxygen masks deployed, and someone (later identified as a flight attendent) with a bittle of oxygen trying to get into the cockpit, but it ran out of fuel so there was nothing he could do, and steered the plane away from the population center at the final moments.

All of that was witnessed by the Flighter Jets pilots and the testimony helped with the investigation.

Basically, the way I see it, they are they “just in case” something happens and they need to shoot it down.

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litchralee@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Movies would have people believe that the jets are there to shoot down the errant jet. During the Cold War, this was entirely plausible and did happen. But more commonly, when a fighter jet is sent to intercept an unknown aircraft – perhaps one that has entered restricted or prohibited airspace – it may be just to have eyes on the situation.

Airspace is huge. The vastness of the air is like the vastness of the sea. Sometimes it’s an advantage because there’s fewer things to hit. But on the flip side, if an aircraft needs assistance, there might not be anyone for many miles in any direction. As for what an assisting fighter jet can do, the first is to establish navigational accuracy. History has shown that airplanes can get lost, and sometimes unfortunately end up hitting mountains or running into known obstacles or weather. A second aircraft can confirm the first aircraft’s position, since two separate aircraft having navigational problems is exceptionally rare.

The next thing is having eyes on the outside of the aircraft. Things like a damaged engine on a jetliner aren’t visible to the pilots, but there’s a chance the passengers or cabin crew can look. But damage to a rudder is impossible to see from inside the aircraft; I’m not yet aware of a commercial aircraft equipped with a tail-viewing camera.

Finally, if it should come to it, an assisting aircraft can be the pilot’s eyes, if for some reason the pilots can no longer see out their windscreen. At this point, the flight be alreybe doomed but it may help avoid additional casualties on the ground. I’m reminded of the flight where volcanic ash sandblasted the windshield, or when a cargo jet had a fire onboard which filled the cockpit with thick smoke.

To be clear, neither incident was aides by fighter jets, but having an external set of eyes to give directions would have made things a little bit easier for the pilots.

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neidu3@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Depends. It’s very situational, but the procedure first calls for monitoring and communications (longbstory short there are ways of communicating between aircraft using maneuvers.)

Beyond that, there will be attempt at guiding the offending aircraft, either to a runway, or to a safer area.

But if it comes to it, the passenger jet can be shot down - A Hijacked passenger liner should be considered a weapon of mass destruction.

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ThePyroPython@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I can only speak for the UK and from a amateur perspective but here’s the rough breakdown:

90% of the time it’s likely a private pilot that’s wandered into a restricted airspace without realising it. They’re politely escorted out.

9.9999% of the time is an adversarial nation testing the response time of the quick-reaction force defenses. They’re politely but forcefully escorted out. Maybe some insults traded over the radio but that’d be about as heated as it gets.

0.0001% they pose a threat and refuse to be escorted out. At that point it’s basically the same thing of asking “what would happen if someone climbed the fence to the White House and towards it and when the secret service pointed guns at them didn’t stop, would they get shot?”

It’s the pilot’s call at that point, but if they posed a threat to life then yes they probably would shoot them down.

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Shadow@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Shoot it down, or just get it’s attention. A lot of the time there’s a radio fuckup. If some guy cruising in his Cessna sees a fighter pull up along side, he’s definitely switching to 121.5.

Otherwise be there to shoot it down quicker if it looks like it might be taking an aggressive action.

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- HelixDab2@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Point of fact: the stall speed of any fighter jet that isn’t VTOL is way higher than the maximum speed of most private prop planes. They can do a fly-by, but they can’t really pull along side them.
  
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  - Skunk@jlai.lu ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Image
    
    They do, full flaps and uncomfortable high pitch (well, no flaps in that picture as it is a Mirage) but they definitely do.
    
    Of course there are probably certain types of jets that cannot fly below 150kt and it’s not like actual fighters capabilities are advertised on internet. I only know that Rafale is said to go “below 120kt” with 16 degrees pitch up in 15 tons configuration, FA-18 is something like 135kt at pitch 30 !
    
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- Lojcs@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Lpt, pretend to be asleep when trespassing on military aerospace. Lol
  
  How did they wake the guy?
  
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  - Shadow@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    They didn’t. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helios_Airways_Flight_522
    
    Happens in small planes too www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65814758
    
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  - guy@piefed.social ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Honking
    
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  - tiefling@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Lightly bumping the airplane
    
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gaspar_petersen@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
I like to think they put a big net around it and carry it home safely

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