"Royce Brown" wrote in message
news:fc.003d093b01c589e23b9aca00bb6b3d27.1c589ef@a mugonline.org...
| Roger Halstead writes:
| Can you imagine the damage on the ground caused by an F-16 or 15
| shooting down a low flying small plane over a populated area?
| That would be a disaster no amount of spin could change. The public
| outcry could easily cripple valid air patrols.
|
| I tend to agree but what about the damage if the drunk pilot had spun out
| of control and plowed into a building killing many yet the military did
| nothing? Can go both ways.

Not really. Shooting down the pilot practically guarantees you will
everybody on board the airplane and possibly injure people and property on
the ground, not only with the destroyed aircraft, but also with all the
falling anti-aircraft munitions. Leaving the drunk alone, he might indeed
crash and hurt someone, but then again he probably will not. Shooting him
down merely turns a small chance of something bad happening into a high
probability.