Delta 747-400 takes a beating over China

[armchairpilot94116]

quote ekw:

The Chinese military have a very long chain of command (low trust). Unless there is a crisis and the response has been pre-authorised, by the time they get the general out of his karaoke session you will be long gone. On the otherhand, if you have flown into a military exercise they might think you are the target drone.

unquote

Yes, and I remember the time the Taiwanese military shot down their Learjet (towing a target ) instead of the target itself.

So flying into an active target area is not safe, to put it mildly.