• London 2012: East London residents march over missiles
    64 replies, posted
gunfox stop being a nerd. And I don't see what's wrong with having these, sure, we'll never use them but it's nice to have them there in case.
[QUOTE=adam1172;36573503]I personally think having a missile launcher would look cool. Didn't the 2008 Beijing Olympics had this too? [/QUOTE] Indeed they did. The 2008 Beijing Olympics had a TON of SAM sites all over the place
[QUOTE=cecilbdemodded;36573439]USS Vincennes shot down an Iranian passenger jet, killing almost 300 people because they thought it was an F-14. Here's a ship with state of the art gear and it can't identify a target as a civilian airliner before shooting at it? When the situation is tense, the people with their fingers on the trigger get jumpy. All it takes is some clueless pilot to come flying along, in the wrong place at the wrong time and the next thing you know you have a disaster. They have to balance the possible benefits against the likely casualties if they do shoot something down over a populated area.[/QUOTE] I'm not sure why you're citing the 655 incident as it was a military situation where the tragedy occurred while in a combat situation, it was a tragic mistake in all regards and I don't really want to argue the fine details of it. Now for airplanes they always follow flight paths and chart their course/area before taking off. So a plane straying for its defined course would raise questions and suspicions especially with something as important as the Olympics. Also before firing upon an approaching aircraft they would be hailed in multiple channels and have things like its flight id (or whatever its formally called) and only firing if all their hails/checks fail or get no response and getting confirmation (I think that is how it works). Also, I would much rather take the deaths of people in a jetliner than the tens of thousands that would likely die if an Olympic stadium were to be hit if I were forced to choose between the two. Always better to safe than sorry.
[QUOTE=squids_eye;36564477]It's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it.[/QUOTE] They could just as easily scramble fighter jets if needed. I find it kind of silly regardless; think of it, even if a hijacked plane were to aim for the Olympic games that plane would still crash/explode over a densely populated city. Imagine how much debris damage there would be; not to mention the casualties. [editline]2nd July 2012[/editline] [QUOTE=Dysgalt;36581010]I'm not sure why you're citing the 655 incident as it was a military situation where the tragedy occurred while in a combat situation, it was a tragic mistake in all regards and I don't really want to argue the fine details of it. Now for airplanes they always follow flight paths and chart their course/area before taking off. So a plane straying for its defined course would raise questions and suspicions especially with something as important as the Olympics. Also before firing upon an approaching aircraft they would be hailed in multiple channels and have things like its flight id (or whatever its formally called) and only firing if all their hails/checks fail or get no response and getting confirmation (I think that is how it works). Also, I would much rather take the deaths of people in a jetliner than the tens of thousands that would likely die if an Olympic stadium were to be hit if I were forced to choose between the two. Always better to safe than sorry.[/QUOTE] You're right, flights do follow extremely precise plans and instructions given on three different frequencies. First there's ground, which gives taxi and movement instructions; then there's Tower, which deals with setting departure patterns, altitudes, headings, etc as well as take off clearance; then finally there's departures/arrivals which deals with planes that are currently in the air. When 9/11 happened the FAA knew exactly when the hijackings occurred because of the planes moving off course and flying way below their required altitude. Even jets had been scrambled, but because the communication between various intelligence and security departments (FAA, FBI, CIA, etc) was so poor no one would make a decision to destroy the planes before they hit their targets.
Sorry, you need to Log In to post a reply to this thread.