airstrip

"But the real impact will come with the big freight jets, which will make every airstrip in the world a deep-water port.

Assuming the hijackers had a plan, the closest airstrip that might be disused is on Car Nicobar.

" In an emergency, a pilot is going to favor an airstrip he/she is familiar with over an unknown one.

This is an interesting move for China, and more than simply because it could put an airstrip on the new island eventually.

The only use for camo I can think of is to hide the aircraft while it's stationed on the airstrip - in a relatively vulnerable position.

I too live in airstrip one, the most heavily surveilled non-constitutional democracy on the planet!

Presumably GPS and/or visual recognition system can be used to achieve the same, after all airstrip location is know in advance.

This saves a ton of energy and seemingly works okay with existing infrastructure - assuming your city has a nearby airstrip.

From the PDF:"Soon they decided to try the bucket drop, a technique Dad had developed to deliver and retrieve items from missionaries who had no airstrip.

"This doesn't sound like guaranteed use of commercial airports/airlines, it sounds like you'd have the right to fly yourself from your own airstrip, but not necessarily from an airport.> Which creates another issue.

Either they intended to land/crash the plane somewhere and failed, or the plane was the target and it's now sitting in some deserted desert airstrip getting retrofitted for whatever mission it is intended for.

As for your "calculus", the only thing they can do is aggressively assure the hijackers don't turn it into a 9/11-style attack; shooting down a loaded airbus is not preferable to closing most airstrip options and letting lack of fuel force a landing where subsequent takeoff cannot happen.