though it appears I was right... the only thing an intercept can actually do is.... shoot them out of the sky. What's hard for me to calculate is:
In this case, they didn't.... and it's rather amazing because at the speeds they were traveling the stolen plane, in that area, was over... or at least could have been over (not sure of his fight path), populated areas in seconds... almost fractions of a second. Which leads me to think... "the training" that these pilots in the F15 have must be HIGHLY advanced... with clearly defined boundaries of when to press the fire button. Since they did not fire.... but the article certainly leads one to believe that was an option.... they must have nearly supreme confidence that they have the ability to nearly 'instantly' make the decision and then act.
I would imagine a lot of factors come in to play... I mentioned airspeed and terrain.. altitude would come into play... I have to think that since the guy was talking to air traffic control his 'mental' state was a factor, and who knows what all? In all likelihood this guy came within fractions of a second of being shot down. - JamesJM
