Are they basically just there to shoot down the plane before causes larger casualties by crashing into a heavily populated area? I can’t imagine what else a jet can do to a large commercial aircraft in the air.

  • Shadow
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    20 days ago

    Shoot it down, or just get it’s attention. A lot of the time there’s a radio fuckup. If some guy cruising in his Cessna sees a fighter pull up along side, he’s definitely switching to 121.5.

    There was a commercial jet that was non responsive and the fighter could see the pilots passed out.

    Otherwise be there to shoot it down quicker if it looks like it might be taking an aggressive action.

    • @HelixDab2@lemm.ee
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      920 days ago

      Point of fact: the stall speed of any fighter jet that isn’t VTOL is way higher than the maximum speed of most private prop planes. They can do a fly-by, but they can’t really pull along side them.

      • @Skunk@jlai.lu
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        20 days ago

        Some do, full flaps and uncomfortable high pitch (well, no flaps in that picture as it is a Mirage).

        Of course there are probably certain types of jets that cannot fly below 150kt and it’s not like actual fighters capabilities are advertised on internet. I only know that Rafale is said to go “below 120kt” with 16 degrees pitch up in 15 tons configuration, FA-18 is something like 135kt at pitch 30 ! (I’d love to see a picture of that)

    • @Lojcs@lemm.ee
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      720 days ago

      Lpt, pretend to be asleep when trespassing on military aerospace. Lol

      How did they wake the guy?