Here's some information for you. Airplanes deviate from their intended filed route *all the time*. For any given region of the world we're monitoring, we have dotted lines with an indicated expected route, and these pilots shift from side to side as far as a hundred miles, to get better tailwinds, and sometimes as in the case of LAX to SFO some of these guys will deviate off their overland route along the coast to give their passengers a better view. This is norma. I don't think every single one of these guys are contacted, though in the days following 9/11 the flight patterns tightened up.

Calvin