Germany's defence minister will be responsible for deciding whether to shoot down hijacked aircraft or potential suicide pilots over Germany under a new law drafted partly in response to the September 11th attacks on US cities.
Ministers said today the new air security law was not a "licence to kill", but created a clear legal framework for how to react if an errant plane threatened to slam into a soccer stadium, a nuclear power plant or a city.
Debate on air security in Germany intensified after a 31-year-old student brought Frankfurt to a terrified standstill last January by circling the city in a light aircraft and threatening to crash it into the European Central Bank tower.
Investigators said the man had a morbid obsession with a US woman astronaut killed in the 1986 space shuttle disaster. He was arrested on landing at Frankfurt's main airport.
"I'm thankful that the cabinet has created the necessary clarity empowering me if necessary to order an airplane to be shot down," Defence Minister Mr Peter Struck told a joint news conference with Interior Minister Mr Otto Schily.
He said the law, approved by cabinet today but still to pass parliament, would prevent a fighter pilot from facing lawsuits for shooting down a civilian plane on his orders.
Struck said fighter planes could be airborne within eight minutes of an alarm being raised, and within 10 to 15 minutes could reach any point in German airspace.
There would be a "permanent information flow" between NATO partners if a threatening aircraft were about to cross from one country's airspace into another.
Struck said fighter pilots received special psychological training in case they were required to destroy a civilian plane in order to avert a September 11th-style attack.