Wednesday, February 19, 2014

IF YOU PLAN TO ATTACK SWITZERLAND, do so before business hours:
On the early morning of Feb. 17, the copilot of an Ethiopian Boeing 767 airliner flying from Addis Ababa to Rome hijacked the plane and its 202 passengers while the pilot was in the toilet.

Italian jet fighters intercepted the airliner and, later, French jets followed it until it landed in Geneva. The Swiss air force was unable to send its own F-18 fighters to help with the aerial policing … because Switzerland’s flying branch wasn’t yet open for business.

Most of the world’s air forces, it’s worth pointing out, work around the clock. But not the Swiss.