Originally Posted by ExSimGuy
I agree wholeheartedly with the above posts that itis ludicrous to keep pax on an aircraft that may have an explosive device on board.
However, regarding the "escort", could it be that at least part of their purpose is in case there is an explosion, so that they can be on hand to assist - either to help a damaged aicraft (loss of some controls, external damage inspection, or maybe nav-aids problem) get down safely. Or in the worst scenario, to ensure that the point of arrival on the ground is marked and quick/easy to locate by the emergency services.
Yeah, come on guys, everyone with an ounce of common sense knows it would be best to have an escort rather than not to have an escort. The RAF pilots can make visual assessments / corroborations of what the folks on the ground know from what they've been told. They can even peek into the cockpit to try to see if there's a 'situation' or if something looks suss. This isn't always possible, of course, but it's best to exercise the means to having that option at your disposal. Situations can escalate, so where initially it may seem an overreaction, events could transpire later into making it a genuine emergency. Better to overreact than underreact.
Besides, if QRAs weren't scrambled in this instance, can you guess at what the big questionthat the media would be posing today...? 10 points for the first person to answer correctly.
This highlights a bigger question, which may warrant a new thread... This often used tactic of a hoaxer could be used by real terrorists to cause a diversion of resources from a genuine and unannounced hijack/bomb situation. They could take advantage of the UKs precautionary measures and divert both QRA units to hoax situations, thus removing a major obstacle that sits in the way of their real objective. Even a half-organised terror group could coordinate this reasonably simple situation. You never know, instances like these (and I'm NOT talking about these specific instances this week!) coud be someone 'trying it on', just to see if the policy to react in this way remains in place after a rash of hoaxes. Could be classic 'prodding' tactics with the aim of drawing certain conclusions. A research exercise.
Please don't call me a scaremonger - I'm adding some thoughts, not saying that there's a big attack looming.
The other question is - it'll only take 2 of these on the same day at the same time (which we were only a few hours away from this week) to cause a situation where both UK QRA units are pre-occupied. Obviously there will be contingency plans to 'stand up' more crews when the QRAs are launched, or at least put other crews on some form of heightened readiness, but bearing in mind Coningsby QRA, for example, is manned by detached units from Leeming in Yorkshire ( which only has 2 aircraft on the detachment at any one time), then there's likely to be some sort of gap in the cover which could be exploited, if the desire was there.
The Typhoon isn't yet declared to QRA, so maybe there's some food for thought on the notion of detaching more Tornado aircraft to CBY?
These are all thoughts that are slightly off topic, but interesting to ponder them nonetheless I think.