'I'd have thought it would be far easier to seize a freighter or bizjet on the day if the goal was to drop a dirty bomb on a city or disrupt The Hague talks'
Iron Duck - yes, but what the business jet would not have is 155 Chinese hostages onboard. This is really worrying because if this 777 makes an intrusion into the airspace of a country and is recognised as a threat, the C-I-C of that country then has an even more difficult decision. That decision needs to be considered ahead of time with a decision tree in place, before any potential incident, because there sure as heck wouldn't be much time for consultations, committees, referendums, debates and the like.