No Expense Spared

Three times in the last three days, military jets have been launched to escort a plane with an unruly passenger. These were all domestic flights and in none of these cases was there actually any threat. Each diversion undoubtedly cost 10s of thousands of dollars in direct costs and comparable amounts in indirect and opportunity costs - hundreds of thousands total. I hate to sound like a broken record, but it pains me that others don't see how obviously ridiculous this is. Instead, people act like this is certainly the right decision in light of a single failed attempt to blow up a plane (flight originating outside the US) which injured noone except the alleged bomber.