Looking Back At German Fighter Escort For Jet Airways Flight 9W-118

On February 16 Jet Airways experienced a communication failure on the Mumbai- London flight 9W-118 which resulted in viral video of two fighter jets escorting the Boeing-777 over Cologne, Germany. News and media outlets across the globe re-posted a video taken by a European pilot flying 2,000 feet above the Jet Airways flight, the surreal footage startling the eyes of the world as the German fighter jets sandwiched the commercial plane carrying 330 passengers and 15 crew members on the backdrop of a sea of clouds.

Many speculated on whether the pilots of the Jet Airways’ flight tuned into the wrong frequency, if the issue took place due to a poor transition of ground control radio, or if the malfunction was merely an inexplicable anomaly. However, the more interesting question is what would those German fighter jets have done if there was actually a serious issue aboard 9W-118?

It turns out there is a mountain of theories pertaining to the purpose of jet fighters escorting suspect commercial flights. A large amount of these theories are propagated by a diverse array of nutjobs, conspiracy theorists and complete and utter idiots.

However, rational specualtion does exist, and we sifted out pragmatic theories from various sources concerning this unique scenario. It appears the first objective of the jet fighter pilots in this scenario is to establish a visual with the commercial plane, confirming if there is any damage to the plane, who is in the cockpit and if the cockpit is purposely obscured. If all is well on that front the pilots will confirm whether there are still communication issues, if so they will escort the plane to the nearest airfield in order to prevent crashes on the tarmak due to a communication breakdown. Given that communication was quickly regained on Jet’s Boeing 777 it is possible the jet fighter pilots maintained proximity as a way to clock hours as well as practice procedure for future emergencies.

However, if there was an obvious terrorist threat what could these pilots have done? Well, if the terrorists demanded a ransom there are possibilities of escorting or following the commercial plane at a distance, however, if the terrorists have the capabilities and determination to bomb the plane there is little the pilots can do. In fact they can only do one thing, shoot down the plane. There are often heated debates circling this subject, such as, how could one order the killing of a flight full of innocent passengers, but the cold and correct logic behind the brutal decision of shooting down a terrorist controlled passenger plan is that many other lives will be spared death. Just think of 9/11, if the plane threat could have been eliminated in an area over the ocean, a significant body of water, like a lake, or in a very rural area there would have been significantly less casualties. We can only hope no such travesty ever occurs.