A simple satellite uplink (very small and lightweight these days... cell phone anyone?) would provide all the mechanism needed to issue orders to the plane from anywhere. GPS does wonders.
And, you can get really, really small and lightweight cameras too, so they could see where it was going (mostly so they can see if it is going to crash into a passing ship or something).
[ August 15, 2003, 23:09: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]