I haven’t been following all the news about this aircraft so my questions might be old hat and already hashed over in other threads. Here goes:
Is there a possibility of this aircraft being taken as you describe and being flown to another country within its fuel range without being detected? Seems like a stretch in this age of electronics but in this way, the passengers and crew might be used as hostages or killed but the intact aircraft could have its markings changed and the electronics modified to fit the profile of another aircraft, airline and/or flight plan at a later date and attack another target like a Trojan horse. Maybe something coming into Dulles. Seems to me that loading the plane with passengers and getting as close to a target with innocents to add ‘cover’ for visual contact from fighter protection might be a very real ploy. In addition, the grisly choice of shooting down the aircraft with innocents onboard and protecting a target would still make propaganda either way for terrorists.
Excuse my post if this is redundant and already covered elsewhere.
“Is there a possibility of this aircraft being taken as you describe and being flown to another country within its fuel range without being detected?”
In the Bay of Bengal, yes, after Thai and Burmese radars are switched off and you flew below FL10 and were not transponding. India wouldn’t be able to identify friend or foe and an incoming threat would likely make it to the target. India is entirely focused on threats from Pakistan.
We have an extensive radar facility on Diego Garcia which is about due south of the tip of India. That is why we are not bothering to search to the SE of India, we would have spotted them.
There is only a landing strip in the Andaman Islands and we would have checked that out right away.
“Seems to me that loading the plane with passengers and getting as close to a target with innocents to add ‘cover’ for visual contact from fighter protection might be a very real ploy.”
There was a novel many years back with a plot line where the ChiComs flew a passenger plane carrying a nuclear weapon into the US with Korean War prisoners seated at the windows so intercepting fighters would see white faces and think it was a normal airliner out of comms.
Anything is possible. Would Obama have the nads to order the USAF to shoot down a planeload of civilians on the possibility it was a Trojan Horse?
I’ve not read all the posts but your scenario is a new one to me.
It’s also the most frightening.
Seems the first counteroffer on returning the plane with hostages should be to drop them off somewhere neutral to be rescued in a separate trip.