snaga
You are right, we do think the same way..
except..
It is a myth, you know, that the Police have the power simply to take charge of any situation they choose to, and if they do that other people must do what they say. In certain very well specified cases, yes they do, but it is not a general power.
If the aircraft Captain is still in charge, the Police cannot tell him what to do because he is in charge.
If not, he's just another peron in the aircraft with no powers to tell anyone else (including the other crew members) what to do or to stop them leaving if they choose to. He could not prevent passengers or crew taking matters into their own hands.
If the Police then seek to take charge of the aircraft and its passengers, and to prevent anyone from disembarking, they are acting outside their powers and would have to take the consequences, including actions for assault if they act physically, illegal detention etc, forcing people to remain in a dangerous situation etc etc.
The Police cannot detain anyone unless they have reasonable grounds for suspecting that the person has committed an offence or is about to do so..
The only agency with any kind of legal authority to order people to stay on board might be HMRC, or even the airport operator under its byelaws or the Civil Aviation Act, for reasons to do with revenue collection and or Health & Safety. And those powers would be over-ridden by the IED threat.
A bomb warning in a full cinema, discovered by an usher, is a parallel case. The Police do not have the power to prevent the management from evacuating the premises, and if they were to try they would have a riot on their hands.
As I said at the start, the only people that the Police can order about, apart from a few well-defined cases, are other policemen or people they suspect reasonably of an offence.
Unless (the usual caveat) we have just lost our remaining civil liberties without being told by Tone 'n Charlie.