Angelīs : no sorry, at home sipping my St Julien until Sunday..
BOAC + others : if you look at the ICAO list of reasons for intercept , one says for instance : " Divergence from the flight plan " ( a very valid one since 9/11 I would say ) so every time you take a Direct , in fact you open yourself to the possibility of an interception.
So I would say the military have a field day when they want to practice and do not need " permissions" .
Also there are many interceptions done that you will never see from the cockpit as they stay behind and high and I personally see nothing wrong with that on the contrary. The more they practice the less chance we will see things like KL007 , or even Transavia recently..
In any case , in this period of good wishes and good resolutions I raise my glass to the good old " entente cordiale " hoping that we will keep up the good spirit in 2004 ..
