What good would a fighter jet escort for this commercial airliner do?

Publicity, putting the fear of God into anyone else who might behave the same way in the future, and an excuse to slap the idiots with the biggest fine they can possibly imagine.

Practice and data collection.

To shoot it down in case they be terrorists.

What @ragingloli said. No joke. When I was 18 I flew a small aeroplane across the US border into mexico without filing a flight plan. I was ordered down and threatened to be shot down. I had no ID on me and was put into a mexican jail. I was escorted down. They can shoot civilian aircraft down if they think it’s a serious threat..

Well, I’m in agreement with loli. Will wonders never cease.

After 9/11 they aren’t taking any chances. And I don’t blame them a bit.

I don’t know why they don’t just eliminate serving alcohol on planes. Yes, I know they could drink before getting on the plane, but if they were that sloshes, it’s unlikely they’d be allowed to board.

Post 9/11 (I hate it that we can abbreviate so much horror so quickly) I would say that any airplane with a passenger disturbance important enough to report receives and escort if at all possible. Mostly it is, as @LuckyGuy says, practice and data collection. Keeping the fighter jet pilots versed in terror intervention.

The escort is not for the protection and preservation of the plane, as others have hopefully made clear by now. The escort is in case the plane’s navigation / command is taken over by others with clearly or even “possibly” hostile intent towards other planes, buildings or similar targets of value (i.e., large numbers of civilian casualties aside from the passengers on the plane). In that case the plane can be forced down to a landing by fighter jet maneuvers or, failing that, shot down at a place of their commanders’ choosing.

It was two drunk women. Surely it wouldn’t be too hard for a plane full of sober men and women to take them down and immobilize them.

”It was two drunk women”
nothing a sidewinder can not solve