People are missing something:
He could have locked the door after the pilot exited when he did.
The pilot can electronically send a “door open” request from the bulkhead using the proper code entry, but the person INSIDE can toggle lever to “reject request”.
The door then remains locked for 5 full minutes before another request can be re-sent from outside.
He then could simply continue to reject those requests each 5 minutes, ad infinitum until SHOT DOWN or until he found a richer target.
THE QUESTION REMAINS:
WHY CHOOSE SNOW TARGET OVER A CITY TARGET..?
The door is strengthened specifically to thwart forced entry by the combined strength of 5 or more people, or a team slamming a cart into it:
FINE.
Yes, an open request can be sent (or screamed) but those requests can be OVER-RIDDEN.
DirtyMuzzie could have flown all over creation with GoodPilot and ScreamTeam banging their fists off, out there.
But he chose A MOUNTAIN.
This is weird. He:
1. Didn’t have the guts to pull off a really spectacular Kamikaze (like into a packed city soccer stadium)
2. He feared shoot-down
????????
The door is strengthened specifically to thwart forced entry by the combined strength of 5 or more people, or a team slamming a cart into it:
FINE.
Yes, an open request can be sent (or screamed) but those requests can be OVER-RIDDEN.
DirtyMuzzie could have flown all over creation with GoodPilot and ScreamTeam banging their fists off, out there.
But he chose A MOUNTAIN.
This is weird. He:
1. Didn’t have the guts to pull off a really spectacular Kamikaze (like into a packed city soccer stadium)
2. He feared shoot-down
????????
Because the French scrambled fighters to keep the silent plane away from the nukes. He had nowhere to go. That’s my guess.
[ He then could simply continue to reject those requests each 5 minutes, ad infinitum until SHOT DOWN or until he found a richer target.
THE QUESTION REMAINS:
WHY CHOOSE SNOW TARGET OVER A CITY TARGET..? ]
If he hits a European city he risks killing at least 1 other Muslim.
If the pilots get a passenger roster and he saw there were no Muslim names aboard maybe he decided to strike then.....
If terror was the objective, was it not achieved? A planeload of passengers was proven helpless as its friendly Jihadist copilot flew them into the ground, instilling a new fear among Westerners that their own pilots might be Mohammedan murderers. It was not necessary to aim for a city in order to instill such fear. We are getting jaded when 150 corpses fail to impress us.
“...THE QUESTION REMAINS:
WHY CHOOSE SNOW TARGET OVER A CITY TARGET..?”
******************************************************************************************************
Probably because he was fearful that the pilot rapidly assisted by a number of large passengers and equipment would succeed in BREAKING THRU the locked door and overpowering him. The mountain may well have been “Plan B” (i.e., anywhere on the ground).
The A320 would have been shot down by the fighter tailing it before it ever reached a major city. He had total control at the moment and he used it.
WHY CHOOSE SNOW TARGET OVER A CITY TARGET..?
* * *
He might have thought that if he waited too long, the pilot might think to use a passenger cell phone to alert the airline or some other authority. Given enough time to respond, the military could have shot down the plane.