German government voted to down hijack planes

The German cabinet has approved plans to allow hijacked aircraft to be shot down in order to prevent a terror attack. Germany´s ruling coalition agreed that the power could only be used if a plane had failed to respond to other attempts to halt it.

The federal government, not the military, will make the decision to act under the terms of the bill, which still needs parliamentary approval. The move follows the 11 September 2001 attacks in the US involving four hijacked airliners.

Germany had its own air attack scare in January when a disturbed student stole a small plane and flew around Frankfurt for two hours threatening to crash into the European Central Bank.