OK, right now I have my SLF hat on, and it's a not happy hat, big time.
It would be bad enough ending up somewhere completely other than where I want to be as a result of the activities of a
neanderthal. What would get me ticking like a meter, and ready to do serious damage to someone would be the concept of FORCING me to stay on an aircraft that has been deemed at risk when it is possible, realistic and appropriate to get the passengers and crew the fcuk out of there as rapidly as is safely possible.
Will someone please justify keeping passengers on an aircraft that is suspected of being dangerous, and deemed sufficiently dangerous that the armed forces of a supposedly friendly neighbour state see fit to "escort" it with aircraft whose ONLY purpose in life is to be hostile when needed. As has been commented prior to this message, the only "advantage" to having 2 or more Tornado aircraft "escorting" an incident aircraft is that they can be hopefully relied on to make an objective report if the unthinkable happens, or they can be used to take executive action if the said suspect is about to do something deemed unacceptable!
Keeping the passengers on the aircraft is without doubt putting all concerned under stress, and may be putting them at serious risk, depending on the circumstances.
If Prestwick or Stansted are designated airports to be used for this type of emergency, then as far as I am concerned, they
MUST be required to have the necessary facilities IN PLACE to allow the
IMMEDIATE disembarkation of passengers on arrival.
If the passengers then have to be kept in sterile holding until they can be interviewed etc, so be it, but to keep them on the aircraft for the sort of time periods that have been mentioned is unforgivable.
There's security, and there's Insanity, and I know which category the events of the last few days falls in to!