[spikeytx86]

What I would like to know is why this cessna was not shot down once it entered our airspace and the pilot refused to answer hails?

[cricket]

Was wondering the same. . .incredible. ‘Jeopardy’ and ‘threat’ are words that mean something; or should. And now that he is captured; names should mean something as well.

[CodeMasterPhilzar]

I'm guessing they didn't shoot him down for a couple of reasons. One, if they shoot him down, then he's almost certainly dead. Even in this day of excellent forensic science, dead men still tell no tales. They probably really wanted to question him. Two, if he's not close to a major population center, why take a life and destroy property?

That's probably what they were thinking when they did not give the interceptors the green light for a shootdown. However, I would counter that even over relatively sparsely populated areas, there are still US Citizens. How would they like to explain to someone that their loved ones from the farm in Minn are dead 'cause some whack job crashed his stolen aircraft into the farm house?

When he didn't respond to hails or directional commands, I'd have waited until he was over a truly uninhabited area and shot him down. Heck, just doing a close fly-by in full afterburner would probably produce enough wake turbulence to knock it out of the air. Or at least give him the message wide-screen and hi-def that he does not want to be in the same sky with the interceptors and he'd best put it down now.