16 September 2005

HANOVER, GERMANY - The German government has reached a secret agreement with the country's nuclear power plant operators to erect electronic anti-terror 'shields' to jam aircraft navigational equipment, according to a report Friday.

The federal Environment Ministry views the measure as a means of preventing a September 11-style attack on nuclear facilities by terrorists using planes as bombs, said the report in Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung.

"We intend to begin implementing the programme as soon as possible," Petra Uhlmann, a spokesman for the E.ON power company, was quoted as saying.

The radio transmitters would jam satellite navigational equipment aboard incoming aircraft, effectively making nuclear facilities 'invisible' to pilots who were not within visual distance.

The move follows an embarrassing incident earlier this summer when an emotionally distraught man committed suicide by crashing his light plane within metres of the Bundestag parliament building. Shortly after the September 11 attacks another emotionally disturbed man threatened to crash his light plane into Frankfurt skyscrapers.

In the wake of those incidents, German Luftwaffe pilots have been issued orders to intercept and shoot down such planes.

DPA

Subject: German news