Is it necessarily a desire for vengeance? Or is it sometimes, at least in some cases, simply a desire to see a clearly dangerous, broken individual removed from society for as long as possible, for the safety of everyone they come across?

Note that I'm not saying that the question necessarily applies to this particular case. There's absolutely nothing in this article on which to form an opinion about whether this kid is likely to hurt others again in the future.

That wasn't the engine that went boom, but the hydrogen in the gas bags used to provide lift. In any event, yes I understand we've created sufficiently study tanks to contain hydrogen, even in most accidents. There are films going back to the 1960s showing serious crash tests of cars with hydrogen tanks mounted, which got through the tests without leaks. Whether those tanks would survive an airplane crash, rather than a car crash, is a great question and I don't know the answer. But I would hope there's been some additional progress in the intervening sixty-ish years.

Oh come on, AP. It's been over a year since the incidents. You aren't going to tell us whether her partner has been deported, is still in detention, or has been released?

Yeah, I know, it might not be completely relevant to the article. But as silly as we might want to make this, these are real human beings involved. And as someone who once had the extended nightmare of dealing with the immigration bureaucracy on behalf of a spouse who had entered the country legally as a child but then had her visa renewal denied for no given or apparent reason (while the rest of her family was approved), I can't help but feel sympathy here.