[RS]

"The rules of engagement should be clear."

Strange statement --- you are contemplating rules of engagement for Americans against Americans.


I suppose an instant death penalty would also keep people from bringing nail clippers on commercial flights, but we are just too "PC" to allow it.

[Arkinsaw]

Strange statement --- you are contemplating rules of engagement for Americans against Americans.

I suppose it would have been better to allow Flight 93 to smash into the Capitol to avoid shooting down some Americans. Thankfully they preferred to make that decision themselves without so much handwringing.

FreeRepublic amazes me sometimes, the general consensus seems to be that we are at war and that there are necessary actions to be taken....as long as those actions don't interfere with stuff WE like to do. Sorry, when we put a combat air patrol over a city like today...it needs to be more than just for show.

[Arkinsaw]

I suppose an instant death penalty would also keep people from bringing nail clippers on commercial flights, but we are just too "PC" to allow it.

Nail clippers on the flight are a little different than approaching well-known restricted airspace that contains likely terrorist targets of national importance. Yes, I am in favor of knocking down a plane that does that.

And if you do get those nail clippers on board...and approach the cockpit with them...I'd probably try to break your neck and probably wouldn't be alone.

[nj_pilot]

at the risk of injecting some causal speculation into this lively discussion, have a look at this:

http://tinyurl.com/l89oy

The punchline is that a Cirrus aircraft departing Jamaica had a fuel leak in the right wing caused by the chafing described in the AD. The aircraft was on autopilot and the resulting imbalance fried the a/p servos. Plane went into a sharp left turn and pilot popped the chute.

http://www.aero-news.net/Community/DiscussTopic.cfm?TopicID=3764&Refresh=1

This seems like it might could be what happened here because:
1) the plane made a sharp left turn from a northeast heading to hit the north face of a building
2) there are news reports that pilot or pax reported fuel probs.

This is pure speculation on my part, but it makes sense of an otherwise inexplicable wreck.

Now back to bickering over the utility of those dangerous little conveyances and their incompetent pilots :-)