Armchair General warning: If you've seen the videos of the F-15s, you know that the stolen plane was definitely within engagement range [0]. It's pretty clear

Armchair General warning: If you've seen the videos of the F-15s, you know that the stolen plane was definitely within engagement range [0]. It's pretty clear to me that the decision not to shoot down the plane was very intentional. I agree that a rogue plane over a densely populated area is a nightmare scenario, but also consider that debris from a shot down plane and/or an air-to-air missile over a populated area could be quite bad or worse. Couple this with the fact that the hijacker was communicating with ATC and showed no hostile intent, and it makes sense that the plane was not shot down. If I was in charge of this operation, I would have given the instruction not to shoot down the plane unless it started to make moves towards a populated area. [0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=HJld_TYTcAE https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=HJld_TYTcAE