Originally Posted by andrzej
You have not heard of the standing orders for USAF to shoot down any passenger plane that is suspicious in anyway? I suspect that if the pilot did not provide the password and yet continued on then maybe that would be seen as a possible "problem" that needs to be dealt with.
I hope I'm not on that plane.
So, why only DCA? Why not every flight in the US? How about every flight leaving and entering the US? If you think about it, a BOS-LGA shuttle can all of a sudden "keep going". By the time the threat is realized and fighter jets scramble, the pilot can just aim for the ground. It doesn't matter where it hits in the Northeast corridor, the end result will be pretty much the same.