A slight diplomatic difference in tactics to achieve the same effect. I'm sure they would've ratcheted up the tactics and eventually sent fighter jets if closing the airspace failed to achieve what they wanted.

You are speculating. Austria isn't a NATO member and no US fighter jets can go there without their permission.

The plane could have come back to Russia. They had a choice.

> A slight diplomatic difference in tactics to achieve the same effect

A massive difference in tactics, these two are incomparable. Just like denying someone entry at the border is not the same as arresting them and collecting rent from someone isn’t the same as robbing them.

Encouraging a plane to land by not allowing them into your airspace is not the same as calling in a fake bomb threat and forcing that plane down with fighter jets.

This case is the dictionary definition of hijacking. An act of unlawfully seizing an aircraft, vehicle, or ship while in transit.

Yeah, this case is. The Morales case wasn’t.