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0 pointspiltdownman5mo ago0 comments

Since we don't use cold-war classifications like 'first-world' anymore, I'll refer simply to National Airlines with long-established US and European route access from country A being forced to land in country B to have a citizen of country C arrested.

This excludes the (arguably contentious) incidents like:

- 1954 in Israel where forced a Syrian passenger plane to land in order to gain hostages which it then hoped to exchange for captured Israeli soldiers. - 2012 in Turkey grounded a Syrian plane in 2012 in order to detain and transfer a suspect to the US. - 2016 in Ukraine grounded a plane with military jets to have a citizen of country C arrested

Leaving the following three exemplars:

Egyptair Flight 2843 - EgyptAir forced to land at a NATO base in Italy in the 80s by US fighter jets due to PLO members onboard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achille_Lauro_hijacking#Interc...

Aeromexico Flight 006 - The US diverted a France-Mexico flight to Canada in order to detain and transfer a suspect to the US https://www.cbsnews.com/news/aeromexico-flight-diverted-pass...

Bolivian president's jet - Bolivian president's jet rerouted amid suspicions Edward Snowden on board with France and Portugal accused of refusing entry to their airspace, with plane forced to Land in Vienna due to pressure of US State Department https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/03/edward-snowden...

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kijin5mo ago

Thanks for the detailed list.

A common theme in the last two cases is that the perpetrators did not actually force the plane to land in their own territory. They merely refused entry, forcing the plane to divert to a third country. This means that if they wanted somebody detained, they needed cooperation from that third country. Which only works if the person to be detailed had done something that is also illegal in that third country.

This is different from AnthonyMouse's scenario. Let's return to the hypothetical example of the UK messing with a JFK-CDG flight. The UK can refuse entry to their airspace, "pushing" your plane away. So you might have to refuel in Ireland and enter France over its Atlantic coast instead of crossing Southern England. But you will not be "pulled" into the UK, unless Keir Starmer fancies being treated like Lukashenko in the eyes of the world.

The only example of an actual forced landing is the EgyptAir, which was 40 years ago and had hijackers on board. I'll leave it to you to decide whether that's enough of a precedent to justify being paranoid today.

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